More Than A Phase
by IamLokiLocked
Summary: Following the defeat of Apocalypse, Kitty Pryde returns to the Xavier Institute with her friends. Three months later, the Professor is still haunted by the visions he saw and he's not the only mutant aware of how formidable the Dark Phoenix could be. When the Hellfire Club descends on Bayville, all bets are off. Lancitty, Amara/Tabby, Romy, X-23/Luna, Scott/Jean, Scott/Emma.
1. Chapter 1: Kitty

**A/N:** This is a continuation of X-Men: Evolution following the series finale and featuring new characters from the comics adapted to the X-Men: Evolution setting. Tags will be updated as the story proceeds. Rated T (for now), subject to change. I claim no rights to the show or the characters. The story is also posted on Ao3 under the same name. Follow me on tumblr: iamlokilocked. :) Thanks for reading!

* * *

 _Bamf._

"Kurt!" Kitty dropped the tray of cookies, startled, but he caught it with his foot and balanced it with his tail. A couple inches taller than her and covered in fur, her best friend ported into the kitchen with his mouth stuffed full of burger, a bag of chips in one hand, and no napkins. Kitty gave him a reproachful look and snatched the tray back.

"I should have let them drop," he grimaced, realizing what it was he'd just 'saved' from the floor. Kitty was baking again. Oh man. He flashed her an apologetic smile, nodding to the cookies. "Oatmeal?" He tried to smooth things over.

Kitty frowned at him. "No, they're sugar cookies."

"Ah. That's why they're so… lumpy. Mmm." He patted his stomach unconvincingly, tail twitching. His eyes widened slightly and he swallowed a belch.

"It's the _recipe_ , Kurt," Martha Stewart, thank you very much. Kitty had gotten a lot better with her cooking, that should count for something, right? "They're supposed to look like this," sort of, if you squinted, but she didn't let her uncertainty show, "And besides, they're not for you anyway." She missed the relief in his yellow eyes, and he muttered something in German that she didn't catch.

She did shoot her friend a questioning look, and he smiled at her, clapping his hands together. "So this is for the newbies?"

"Exactly." Things had 'settled down' after the summer, but it wasn't the same. Nothing was ever going to be the same after Apocalypse, but the Xavier Institute was still open and taking students. Kitty just wished there were more familiar faces around, too. Logan wasn't here. He left to… well, he didn't really say but Scott said it was because he didn't trust the Professor's decision to let Magneto stay at the Institute.

Kitty didn't think she'd ever see the day. Magneto wasn't the most trustworthy person in the world (understatement, much?). He'd tried to abduct and brainwash half her friends freshman year. And then there was that whole battle-in-the-streets-of-New-York with the Sentinel and Acolytes last year.

Kitty didn't blame Logan for leaving, but she missed him. Scott was a lot little less forgiving, but even he had a hard time stomaching Magneto as a teacher – especially in the Professor's absence. He and Jean had left two weeks ago. It had something to do with whatever Apocalypse had shown him over the summer. Scott had wanted to go with them. Instead he was here, teaching and training the younger X-Men, and both Kitty and Kurt were worried about him.

"We have to pick up the slack," she reminded him, "At least until Jean gets back. Which means _I'm_ in charge of getting the New Recruits settled and making them feel welcome…"

"And giving them food poisoning?"

Kitty ignored the 'joke'. "What are you doing here anyway?" Besides popping in on her and pumping his arteries full of greasy junk food. "I thought you were running the obstacle course with Laura." For Bobby, Ray, Roberto, and the others. Jubilee hadn't come back yet. Neither had Rahne.

"Yeah, right," Kurt leaned back against the kitchen counter, "She doesn't need my help." Laura didn't need anybody's help (as she was fond of reminding them). Like Logan, Laura was strong, healed in record time, and with her skills, she was definitely not a 'new recruit'. What she wasn't good at? Working with other people. Kitty was surprised that she didn't go with Logan when he left. She didn't seem very happy here.

"Kurt…"

"Relax, Kitty. Rogue's with her," he assured her. He wouldn't just leave a teammate high-and-dry for burgers. And chips. For under five dollars. Kitty shook her head when Kurt popped open the bag of Ruffles and offered her first dibs.

"That stuff is so bad for you," she said. Kurt made a protesting sound but his mouth was full, so he jabbed a finger at the glossy print on the front of the bag. 'Baked'.

Before Kitty could make her usual case about kale chips, she heard the buzzer in the foyer. It meant that someone was at the gate. She brightened, and set down the tray of cookies on the counter. "They're here. Come on." Kurt cast a quick glance back to the cookies and the trashcan (wondering if he should do everybody a favor and get rid of the toxic treats). But that'd mean he'd have to put down his chips, and he couldn't do it with Kitty right there. So instead he ported them both outside.

Kitty tucked a few strands of brown hair behind one ear, the rest of it pulled back in a high ponytail. She was wearing jeans and a blue top, short sleeves. She raised a hand and waved in the direction of the taxi as it slowly made its way up the lengthy driveway to the house. Her smile didn't falter when she said to Kurt, "That's weird. They were both supposed to get here at two." Kurt murmured that maybe somebody had missed their flight.

"From Long Island?" she asked dubiously. Kurt shrugged.

The taxi pulled to a stop and the driver got out. He ambled to the trunk of the car, unlocked it, but Kurt ported over and took the suitcases with a cheerful, "I've got it!" before he'd even reached for them. Kitty stepped forward eagerly to meet the girl who stepped out of the car.

"Hi! I'm Kitty – that's Kurt," the girl turned to glance in the direction Kitty gestured, and Kurt half-lifted her duffel bag in greeting, "Welcome to the Xavier Institute."

"Luna." Luna Delgado was sixteen with long brown hair that hit her waist, dark eyes, and red lipstick. It was the brightest part of her whole ensemble which consisted of black pants and a dark purple crop top. She was also wearing a holowatch, which Kitty didn't notice at first.

"Did you have a good flight?" Luna nodded in response, but she was looking behind the X-Man at the mansion. No stranger to filling the silence, Kitty added, "Great. Why don't I show you to your room, give you a tour, and- are you hungry? Do you like sugar cookies?"

Kurt shook his head – _just say no_ , he thought - as the two girls disappeared into the house, then he tipped an imaginary hat to the cabbie and took the bags upstairs with another _bamf._


	2. Chapter 2: Kitty

Kitty kept up a running commentary as she showed Luna around the mansion: kitchen, dining room, rec room, library, elevator (to the basement where the classrooms and the Danger Room were located). All of the bedrooms were upstairs. It wasn't just about the floor plan, but also the rules: training, school, meal times, chores, curfew. And if she needed anything at all, Kitty and Kurt were usually available.

Luna didn't say very much, but Kitty assumed that was mostly due to the jetlag. California was three hours behind New York. Besides, this was a lot of information to get at once. Kitty left their newest recruit to unpack and stopped by Hank's office on her way back downstairs. The door was cracked open so she knocked.

"Yes?" Half-buried under a pile of papers on his desk, Hank pinched the bridge of his nose briefly between two fingers before he looked up and saw her. "Kitty, please come in."

"Are you okay, Mr. McCoy?"

He smiled, "I'm fine." She looked at him expectantly and he acknowledged with a rumbling sigh, "I'm afraid it's not easy to fill Charles' shoes."

Kitty gave a small smile in return. "Have you heard anything new?" Like where Jean and the Professor were, or when they'd be back? She bet that things would've gone better with Luna if Jean was here.

"It's going to be a couple more days." He seemed like he was about to say more, but instead he shook his head slightly. "What can I help you with, Kitty?"

"Oh," that's it? "Nothing, really. I just wanted to let you know that Luna is getting unpacked."

"Wonderful. And what about Miss Blaire?"

Kitty shook her head. "She's not here yet."

"Hm." He frowned slightly. "Let me make a call. Something must have come up."

* * *

Something _had_ come up.

Carter Blaire was at a deposition all day. Mr. McCoy couldn't reach him until after six. Once he got off the phone, he brought Kitty, Kurt, and Scott up to speed. According to Mr. Blaire, who made the arrangements for his daughter to transfer to the Xavier Institute, they'd gotten in a fight yesterday. Alison had snuck out and was currently staying with friends in (he suspected) Brooklyn. Mr. Carter had an idea of where his daughter would be, and Mr. McCoy sent them to talk to her.

They took Scott's car.

Kitty was in the passenger's seat, and Kurt sat in the back, leaning forward with his hands braced on his knees so they could talk over the radio. Scott didn't say very much. He seemed distracted. She 'casually' turned to Kurt and said, "Mr. McCoy told me it's only going to be a couple more days."

"For what?"

"Until Jean gets back," 'duh'. "And the Professor." She looked at Scott in profile, but his gaze was fixed on the road.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Kurt replied, leaning back in his seat, "That's what they said when they left." The trip took a lot longer than anyone expected, he was right, but Kitty rolled her eyes. Being reminded of that wasn't going to cheer Scott up.

"Well, _I_ believe Mr. McCoy," she replied confidently, glancing between Scott and Kurt, "We should throw them a 'welcome back' party or something. Jean would totally love it," plus it could double as a meet-and-greet for the new students. "There could be dancing."

Kurt snapped his fingers in agreement, "And food."

"What do you think, Scott?"

"Hm?"

"About a welcome back party for Jean."

"Oh." Scott turned on the blinker and checked his blind spot before merging into the next lane, squeezing between two cabs. He had to drive around the block again to find a parking spot. "No. Let's hold off on any big celebrations until she's home." _And I've had a chance to-_

"Have you talked to her?"

Scott shook his head stiffly.

"Are you worried about her?"

"She's with the Professor," was all he said. But that wasn't a 'no'. Kitty exchanged a look with Kurt, but before she could say anything else, Scott pulled into an empty spot on the street just as a Ford Focus drove off. "Kitty, you'll get us inside. Then we'll split up and look for Alison," the idea was that they'd get to meet her, talk to her about the X-Men, and hopefully convince her that the Institute was the place for her (at least for now).

Kitty was concerned they wouldn't be able to find her. They weren't even sure she was here. Without the Professor, Cerebro was out of the question which meant that all they had to go on was what Alison's dad said.

The "venue" was some old restaurant whose bottom floor got converted into a performance space on the evenings and weekends (max capacity: 100 people, standing room only). The 'friends' Alison was staying with, according to her dad, were in a band. Tonight they were performing. Kitty, Kurt, and Scott went around the back to avoid paying the cover charge at the door, and she phased them into the building.

" _Dude."_ That was Kurt.

You couldn't tell from the outside, but they'd just walked into a… concert. The band was mid-set: two guitarists, a keyboardist, and a drummer were playing this catchy, upbeat song that reminded her of the kind of music she liked to listen to on the radio. Kitty was practically pressed up against the wall, there were so many people crowded into the room. There were portable LEDs by the stage, but most of the light wasn't coming from that. It was the singer. There was this girl in a white halter top and matching skinny jeans, curly blonde hair and crazy blue eyeshadow. The drums grew louder and the bass cut in, and she belted out a chorus, throwing her hands in the air. Multi-colored strobe lights spiraled from her fingertips to the ceiling.

The audience whooped and screamed enthusiastically. _Found her._ It was such a weird feeling to be in the middle of all this because Kitty was used to… well, people did yell at her and her friends. But it usually wasn't because they were impressed. Being a mutant was not easy (especially not in New York). It seemed like every time she turned the TV on there were headlines about another anti-mutant rally, or a bill, or a speech talking about how dangerous they were, the usual stuff.

But this was… _fun._ Alison Blaire's powers lit up the entire room, and everyone was into it.

"Front row seats, coming right up," she said, taking Kurt and Scott by the arm and phasing them through the crowd to the stage.

Scott was the first one to notice them. There were two guys, early-thirties, crew cuts, standing together off to the left, and definitely not here for the music. They weren't part of the crowd. Alison finished her last song and passed the microphone to a guitarist named Bruce, then she left the stage.

Almost immediately, the two guys moved towards her. Scott saw it first, and he nudged Kitty and Kurt towards off-stage. "Let's get over there," he said, and by the time the X-Men muttered their 'excuse me's to make it the last few feet, one of the men grabbed the girl by the wrist and was saying something to her very quickly. Kitty didn't hear what 'it' was, but Alison wasn't having any of it.

"Let go of me!"

"Leave her alone." That got their attention, and Kitty glanced between Scott and the two men. Alison continued to twist her wrist in an effort to free it from the first man, who was blond. The second took one look at Scott and pulled back his jacket – it was brown and really ugly – to reveal a gun holster.

"This is above your paygrade, kid."

Kid? Nobody called Scott 'kid'. Who were these guys and how many terrible movies on Spike TV had they been watching? Yesterday there was nothing but Steven Segal on for hours. She didn't know how Kurt could watch that stuff. He thought it was hilarious, she thought it was just... bad.

Anyways, these guys looked like reject extras from one of those movies.

Scott didn't even flinch, but one hand did go to his sunglasses. "I said, leave her alone."

"You're gonna bruise my mic hand! Get! Off!" The bass guitarist played a string of notes against the backdrop of the crowd and that was enough for a shocking white light – brighter than a photographer's flash – to burst out of Alison's hand. It disoriented her would-be captor and he let go of her hand with a groan, and Kitty was seeing spots too.

"Stop!" Before Alison could take off, the second guy had drawn his gun – but before he could point it at her, a red blast knocked it right out of his hand and the weapon skittered across the floor. It was Scott.

"Nightcrawler, get her out of here!" Scott ordered.

Kurt ported from Kitty's side to Alison's, who stifled a yelp. "Hey, my name's Kurt," he said by way of self-introduction, flashing the blonde a big (reassuring) smile before he touched her shoulder and the two of them disappeared in a bamf of smoke. The guy who'd lost the gun let out an outraged sound and barreled towards Scott.

Kitty took on the second one.

He drew his gun, too. "Hey!" Kitty wanted to get his attention before he turned anything on Scott, who'd just blasted his opponent back into the stage so hard that it shook the whole platform. The music stopped. Eyes swiveled over to them – and someone saw the weapon.

"Gun!"

Everybody started to panic, surging towards the exit at the back of the venue.

"Where is she?" The blond guy demanded of Kitty over the sound of the chaos.

"She's long gone. Who are you? What do you want with her?"

"Tell me where she is!"

He pointed the gun at Kitty. She could see right down the barrel. She wasn't scared for herself, exactly, but if the bullet went through her it could still hurt someone who was trying to get out of here. So she phased into the floor before he could shoot and she pulled herself up behind him. Then she reached through his body and grabbed the gun, yanking it out of his startled grip. He yelped. He seemed pretty comfortable with mutants – they both did – but being phased through was not something you forgot. It even weirded her friends out. He spun around and Kitty was holding the gun, expression hard.

"Who are _you_ and why are you after Alison?"

He turned his head in both directions and that's probably when he saw his 'friend', unconscious and slumped in a pile of splinters that had blown through the middle of the stage. Scott joined her and Kitty gave him the gun. Rather than answer her, he took off at a run throwing himself into the remains of the crowd before they could stop him. That left them with one bad guy, and he wasn't getting up anytime soon.

"What do we do with him?" Kitty asked.

"Leave him for the police."

"Shouldn't we take him with us? Maybe he can tell us something…" Scott shook his head.

"We need to get Alison out of here," he took one look around the emptied concert space and the damage his powers had done, "Besides, we don't need to be here when the police arrive." He was right. It would probably cause a lot more trouble in the long-run if they took this guy with them. The X-Men were everybody's favorite scapegoats, and they didn't need to add 'kidnapping' to the list of things the media would run with on this.

"Okay."

Kurt ported into the empty room a moment later, and with him was Alison. "Can you cut that out? It smells _so bad_ ," she protested irritably, waving a hand in front of her face.

Kurt ignored her. "Everything alright? We waited but…"

"Everything's good," Scott confirmed, "Let's get back to the car."

Kurt ported the three of them to the sidewalk beside the convertible. Alison must not have been too shook up over her ordeal because she called shotgun. Kitty and Kurt exchanged a look. They had a lot to talk about when they got back to Bayville: who was after her and why, how they found her, and what that meant.


	3. Chapter 3: Kitty

Alison swore she'd never seen those two men before in her life. She thought they might be 'obsessed fans' of the Dazzler, but that seemed unlikely. She didn't want to stay at the Xavier Institute, because she claimed that this was her dad's way of interfering with her future career as a mutant superstar. Apparently he hadn't taken it well when she declared that she wasn't going to college to become a lawyer because she had 'bigger plans'. Hank was the only person who managed to talk her into staying, at least until they found out who had tried to abduct her and why. Kitty wasn't so sure about the roommate situation – because she and Luna seemed so different – but things had worked out for her and Rogue, so maybe it would be… great.

Once Alison was settled (and monologuing in a one-sided chat with Luna), Kitty joined in on the conversation between Hank, Scott, and Kurt. They were debating who might be responsible for what happened tonight. "The question is, how did they know where to find her?"

Kitty leaned against the doorframe and said what they were all thinking, "She wasn't exactly hiding, Mr. McCoy." She used her powers in a room full of people. Maybe this wasn't the first time.

"It could be S.H.I.E.L.D.," Scott suggested, running one hand through his hair. They had ways of finding people. Kitty had no idea what they'd want with Alison, but that didn't mean they weren't involved.

"They were definitely human," she agreed.

"But without Logan, we won't be getting much out of Nick Fury."

"What about Laura?" Kurt said somewhat reluctantly, "She knows S.H.I.E.L.D." He wasn't wrong, but Laura 'knew' S.H.I.E.L.D. because they tried to intercept her after she broke free of HYDRA's control. HYDRA had made her to be the perfect weapon – X-23, a clone of Weapon X with all of his strengths and no 'human' weaknesses – and S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to get in on that too. She faked her own death to get away from them, and when she resurfaced outside the Institute one month ago, everybody was half-expecting Nick Fury himself to land a(nother) helicopter on the lawn. But no one came. Who knows what Logan had to do to get them off her back?

"I could give Agent Fury a call," Hank said, "But if S.H.I.E.L.D. is not involved, I'd rather not draw his attention to the Institute again." And nobody wanted that. Nobody trusted S.H.I.E.L.D. They were supposed to be 'the good guys', but Logan didn't buy it and neither did the rest of the X-Men.

It didn't help that S.H.I.E.L.D. had some 'new recruits' of their own: former members of the Brotherhood. And if those guys were 'agents' then Kitty knew everything she needed to know about S.H.I.E.L.D. How many times had they tried to kill her friends, or destroy Bayville, or generally endanger everyone around them? Only every day for the last four years (and Kitty was only slightly exaggerating). Yeah, those guys – Toad, Blob, Pietro, Lance – and Wanda had come through when Apocalypse nearly destroyed the world-as-we-know-it but then they turned around and joined S.H.I.E.L.D.

One good deed did not make up for… everything else. That's why it was so hard to believe that Magneto had really turned over a new leaf and just wanted to 'help' the Professor. So far, he had been a model teacher but… how long was that going to last?

"We do know other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents," Kitty rejoined tentatively, and Scott gave her a look.

"Kitty, don't."

"What? I'm just saying…"

"Cutting ties with Alvers was the right thing to do. That guy's not going to know anything."

"You got that right." Kitty glared at Kurt. He and Scott had never liked Lance anyway, so of course they would say that. That didn't mean she didn't agree with Scott, she totally did. She and Lance were not good together, she wasn't 'going there'. Besides, _he_ dumped _her_ (not that it mattered). Kitty just wanted to help. Talking to Lance would be less risky – 'hey, it's me, the ex-girlfriend you bailed on after we saved the world together, did your new friends at S.H.I.E.L.D. try to kidnap a mutant in Brooklyn this week?' He did have a history of hanging around those kinds of people, like Blob and Mystique – than asking _the_ Nick Fury about it.

Maybe he heard a rumor, even if he wasn't directly involved.

"That's alright, Kitty," Hank diffused the situation gently, and then addressed the three of them, "Charles and I will debrief, and then we will decide what to do. I appreciate your good work today."

And that was that. None of them felt like it was 'good work', because there was still the glaring problem of the armed men who went after Alison – but there was nothing they could do about it right now. Kurt suggested re-heating leftovers from the dinner they missed, and Kitty agreed. Scott stayed behind to talk to Hank.

* * *

The next day Kitty oversaw the diagnostic danger room session with Luna and – though she was vocally resistant to having to get up before ten a.m. – Alison.

After lunch, Ororo took over and Kitty had some time on her hands before Scott's pre-dinner Level 4 simulation for the senior X-Men. She couldn't stop thinking about what happened yesterday, and she couldn't help but think that there wasn't any _harm_ in trying to talk to Lance about this. He would tell her the truth, which was more than you'd expect from a super spy like Fury. The only problem was that Kitty didn't have his number. After they broke up (again) because Lance had no plans to join the X-Men, and she found out about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s 'offer' which meant he'd be leaving Bayville, she was angry. She didn't think she ever wanted to talk to him again. And now she couldn't.

Rogue figured out why she was 'sulking' in their room pretty quickly – and she'd never had a big problem with Lance personally (more 'the Brotherhood'). At any rate, she understood better than most… with Remy, and how long it took for people to warm up to him (and some people hadn't). When they first met Remy, he was going by 'Gambit' and he worked for Magneto. He hadn't been honest with Rogue either, and he put her in danger more than once. But he was here now and Rogue seemed to trust him… and so far, so good. Remy considered staying at the Institute but once Magneto moved in, he opted out of living under the same roof as his former employer. But he still stuck around to be with Rogue.

"Now I don't know if this is gonna help ya much," she drawled, running a brush through her hair. White streaks framed her face. She was going out with Remy. Kitty was sitting on her bed. "But Tabitha still talks to Pietro. If ya really wanna track down Lance..."

"I don't 'really want' to track him down," she argued lamely, "I just… want to know if he's involved-"

"Or in town?" Rogue guessed, glancing at her roommate through the mirror reflection. Kitty didn't say anything. "Look, I think ya should leave it to Hank and the Professor." Not what she wanted to hear, and Rogue caught the subtle roll of her eyes to the side, "But if you're gonna do it anyway," and she was, "Be careful."

It was just a phone call, and it was Lance. This was X-business, nothing more. And she wasn't trying to take on S.H.I.E.L.D. or anything, she only wanted to ask the question. "Thanks." For the tip about Tabby, because Kitty had no idea she was still talking to Pietro. She knew that they were friends, kind of, as much as anyone _could_ be friends with Pietro but… Kitty just assumed that everyone who joined S.H.I.E.L.D. severed ties with the people they'd known before. But maybe it was just her.

Tabby had moved back into the mansion after what happened with Apocalypse. She wasn't interested in being an X-Man, but she did want to stay with Amara. The Professor said she was always welcome here, so she came and went as she pleased.

"Alright, Kitty, I'm leavin' now." Rogue turned towards her, checking her reflection one last time. She wore black jeans and a black tank top underneath a long-sleeved olive green shirt, and her signature black gloves and boots. She looked good.

"Have fun," the brunette replied with a teasing smile, sliding off the bed, "I'll walk you out." She left with Rogue and stopped at the stairs, waving at her friend as she crossed the foyer to the front door. "Tell your _boyfriend_ hi."

"He's _not_ my boyfriend." He totally was, Rogue just didn't call him that because… who knows why, maybe she was worried it would jinx the relationship to 'label' it. And she was a little sensitive about the whole 'dating' thing since her powers made it tough for her to… _you know_.

"Uh huh." Once Rogue was gone, Kitty checked a few places – the kitchen, the dining room, her bedroom – before she found Tabby in the rec room, watching _Jaws_ with Amara. The blonde had her head in Amara's lap and wasn't paying attention to the film, holding her new phone out in front of her face and taking pictures. There was an unfinished pack of grape-flavored Bubbalicious, the blackened seeds of burnt popcorn in the bottom of a big green bowl, and some sodas on the table.

Kitty tapped on the doorframe before she walked in, and Amara looked over and smiled at her. "Hi Kitty," she said sweetly.

Tabby didn't roll off of Amara's lap but she did twist slightly to get a good look at the brunette. "Hey Kit-Kat," she greeted her loudly, "We are movie marathoning our fav monster flicks. Do you want in? We've got gum, and we had popcorn but 'Mara burned it."

"I like it a little singed," Amara protested, then glanced at Kitty, "But I can make some more if you want."

Kitty shook her head. "No thanks. I actually wanted to talk to you, Tabby."

"Word," Tabby arched her back to reach for the remote she was laying on, then she hit pause half-hanging off the couch, "What's up?"

Kitty didn't know how to ask without sounding completely obvious… not that she had anything to be embarrassed about. She decided to be direct, admitting, "Rogue said you still talk to Pietro."

"Yeah. Me and Speedy keep in touch."

"Is he- um, are they in New York?" Pietro and Lance, and the rest of the former Brotherhood. Even if they weren't, S.H.I.E.L.D. could still be involved – but Kitty was curious.

Tabby made a face. "No idea."

Wait, what? "But you just said you talk to Pietro."

"I text him," she explained, holding up the phone. It was the one the Professor paid for, and he did that for any student – or resident – who wasn't able to pay their own bills. Tabby was on her own, she didn't talk to her parents and that was for the best because her dad was awful. "I send him funny videos. And pics. But he never responds."

"Seriously?" Tabby just looked at her. Kitty sighed, put her hands on her hips. "You don't happen to have Lance's number, do you?" She didn't. "Well, can you… like, ask him for Lance's number?"

"Sure." Tabby murmured aloud as she typed the message, "Kit-Kat wants to-"

"No," Kitty protested quickly, "Don't tell him _I'm_ the one asking, he won't give it to me." Pietro didn't like her. The dislike was completely mutual – and then some. He was the most arrogant, egotistical jerk she'd ever met… and she used to know Jean's old boyfriend, Duncan. The fact that he was Lance's best friend was one of many contributing factors to their break-up(s).

"Whatever you say, Kit-Kat." Tabby sent the message, and less than ten seconds later her phone buzzed with a response. Kitty stood there awkwardly as Tabby replied, then received another text. She read it and smirked slightly. "It's for you." She showed Kitty the screen, and she read through the messages:

Me: _hey speedy_  
Me: _give me lance's #_  
Speedy: _No_.  
Me: _y not_ _  
_Speedy: _Pryde: No._

"How did he know?" Kitty said irritably, to which Tabby shrugged semi-apologetically.

"What do you need to talk to Lance for, Kitty?" Amara asked curiously.

"It's nothing," she replied, clearly discouraged, "We just saw some trouble last night and we thought S.H.I.E.L.D. might be involved," and it was a longshot anyway, to think that Lance and Pietro would know what was going on. They were probably nowhere near New York. Still...

"You know, I'm just going to give him a call. Do you mind?"

"Mi phone es su phone," Tabby replied easily, and Amara quietly corrected her Spanglish.

Kitty hit Pietro's number, which was still in a NY area code, and she waited. It rang four times. No answer. And the answering machine message was automated. It didn't even give his name, just the number. She shifted in her stance at the sound of the beep and spoke as calmly as possible, "Pietro, it's Kitty. Yesterday we ran into some armed men in Brooklyn," she didn't want to give too much away, what if he just turned around and told Fury about this? "If you guys are in town and S.H.I.E.L.D. is involved in any way, we _will_ find out so... it's your best interest to come clean." Talk about 'vague'. Kitty didn't know how to finish the message, and after an awkward heartbeat she added, "That's all I had to say." Should she say something about Lance? Forget it. "Bye." Kitty hung up.

She forced a smile in Tabby's direction, and handed her the cell phone. The blonde shoved it into her pocket, wriggling the phone into the back of her jeans. "I'll let you know if he says anything, but I wouldn't bet on it, Kit," she said.

 _Me either._ "It was worth a shot. Thanks anyway." Kitty left the rec room and halfway down the wall, she could still hear those classic notes – dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun – from the movie soundtrack. Now what? She was so focused on S.H.I.E.L.D. and getting answers from Lance, she wasn't sure where to go from here. Maybe it _was_ better to leave things up to the Professor...


	4. Chapter 4: Luna

**Notes:** Luna is adapted from the 2099 comics universe. La Lunatica is an often overlooked character (imo), but I'm crazy about her. I think her ability to feed off of traumatic memory makes for great hurt!comfort plots. I've always wanted to write about her as a teenager in the Evo-verse, so this is my first shot at that.

N.B. Perspective will switch between major characters from time to time, but will always be indicated in the chapter title. Thanks for reading!

* * *

Luna rolled up her shirt with a wince, but all she saw in the mirror was smooth brown skin from the hem of her tank top to the black denim. She pressed two buttons on the image inducer. The hologram flickered off and the bruise bloomed on her ribcage, a mottled purple spreading over her torso. She was hit in the chest with a plank of metal that unfolded out of the wall. It was her first danger room session.

Charles Xavier gave the holowatch to her three weeks ago to make it easier for her to travel from California to New York. She stared hard at herself: white hair, white skin, red eyes. She woke up one day and she looked like this. People stared.

 _La Lunatica_. Mama called her that after what Luna had done to their neighbor. It reminded her of the most important thing: they were afraid of her. She had powers and they didn't. And her powers made them face the worst parts of themselves. With one touch, Luna could trigger vivid and painful memories, the ones people tried to bury and forget. She made them relive it – the trauma - and she fed on that energy.

She wasn't sorry either.

She undid the buckle of her holowatch and put it on the bookshelf above her desk.

The door opened behind her, and Luna dropped her shirt. She turned to face her new roommate, Alison Blaire. Blaire had a towel wrapped around her head, and she huffed petulantly, "So… that was _the worst_."

Luna said nothing. She sat down on the edge of her bed.

"Did they really have to put me through that?" Alison had complained already that she shouldn't have to 'do this' because one, she was here _temporarily_ and two, she did Pilates. She was even more outraged when she had to wear the uniform. It was navy blue jumpsuit with a gold belt engraved and painted with a big 'X' on the buckle. "Running around like some kind of…"

"X-Man?" Luna said dryly.

" _Right_ ," Alison agreed emphatically, unraveling the towel from her hair and throwing it on the bed, "But I'm not an X-Man. I already have a career," or the start of one, she said, "I could have been on TV. They could have put me, _me_ , on the six o'clock news yesterday. You can't _buy_ that kind of exposure."

"The X-Men have exposure." Luna remembered seeing them on the news two years ago, and she was in L.A. She didn't know why she was bothering to argue with Blaire, not that she was listening. She was still talking as if Luna hadn't even opened her mouth.

"And it's not that I'm not grateful that they stepped in and scared off those jokers, they'd make a _great_ security team. But…" Alison gave one look around the room, from her piles of matching designer luggage at the foot of the bed (which her father paid to have brought over) to the window that looked out over the front lawn. "Ensembles aren't my thing."

"That is tough, Alison." Her voice was flat.

"Ali," the blonde corrected blithely, "I know," 'Ali' added, "But I've been trying to think about it like this: if things had gone according to plan, Bruce's band would have played right after me. I was the opening act. But the way things turned out, I was the _only_ act."

Luna got up and left. If she didn't leave, she'd do something she probably _wouldn't_ regret.

She went downstairs to get a glass of water (and avoid her 'this-isn't-an-act-no-I'm-really-this-annoying' roommate) and she saw a tanned brunette – not Kitty - in the kitchen, sitting at the breakfast table. She didn't look up from her plate of tater tots when Luna entered the room, or when she opened three different cabinets. Fourth time was the charm. Luna found a coffee mug and filled it up in the sink.

The brunette only glanced at her when she didn't leave.

"I'm Luna," she said, leaning against the kitchen island and cupping her mug between both hands.

"I know." She speared another chunk of fried potato with her fork, and ate it. "You are a new recruit."

"And you are…?"

"Laura." Laura looked about her age but Luna didn't see her at dinner last night, where she met the rest of her 'teammates'. The two girls didn't exchange another word until Kitty Pryde walked through the wall.

"Laura, I've been looking for you," Kitty said, before spotting the 'new recruit'. "Hi Luna, finding everything okay?" She nodded. "I'm glad I ran into you, too. I have some school news: Mr. McCoy has all of your transfer paperwork, and you'll be getting a ride with Bobby and the others." Luna learned over dinner last night that Bobby, Amara, Sam and Roberto were seniors. Jamie was a sophomore, like her. The rest had graduated. Lucky them. "They'll show you around."

"Thanks." Luna did not like high school. She didn't think it would be any better here than it was in California.

"We can talk about this more at dinner." _Estupendo._ Just the thing to make her lose her appetite. Kitty turned her attention back to Laura. "We're going to run rescue drills in the morning. Meet by the pool at six?"

"Who will be running them?"

"Cyclops." Laura made a scoffing sound which Kitty ignored. Luna was confused – because he was one of the lead instructors. "I'll see you there?"

"Yes."

"Great. I'm going down to the Danger Room now. We should be done in an hour if you need anything."

"I won't," Laura replied bluntly.

Kitty looked at Luna instead, and she seemed to be trying very hard not to let the annoyance show. "Ororo will be with us, but Mr. McCoy is in his office." Kitty left the room and Laura stood up, carrying her empty plate to the sink.

"What's wrong with Cyclops?" she asked Laura once Kitty was out of earshot. She had the greenest eyes Luna had ever seen.

"Wrong?" Laura's brow furrowed briefly, then she replied, "He does not have my experience in the field." So she was mad she had to take orders from him.

Luna nearly laughed, but the brunette's expression stopped her. She was serious. Luna didn't like being told what to do either, but she knew she didn't have _their_ kind of experience. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

That's what she thought. "And you have more experience than Cyclops?"

Laura narrowed her eyes. "Yes." She didn't explain herself, and Luna didn't get the chance to ask. She was startled when Laura held up a hand between them and two sharp blades sprung from her knuckles. She used the blades to skewer and lift an apple from the fruit bowl. Luna had never seen that before. She turned to stare at Laura as the other girl walked out of the room.

"Are you going to be at school tomorrow?" Luna impulsively called after her.

"I don't go to school," was the reply, and moments later the front door slammed shut.

Luna leaned her back against the kitchen island pensively. There was something about Laura that was… not like the others. She was standoffish and didn't say much and that was pretty mysterious. And she didn't have to go to school – what was that about, and how could Luna get in on it? It wasn't just her first impression. Luna had learned – since her powers manifested – that everyone had secrets. Horrible secrets. And they couldn't hide them from her. The X-Men weren't any different.


	5. Chapter 5: Luna

**A/N:** Thanks to Kittyxo for the amazing review :) Lancitty is incoming with the next chapter! Trigger warnings for brief reference to bullying (Luna) and parental death via memory (Amara).

* * *

The only thing worse than being a new student was being a new _transfer_ student six weeks into the semester.

Luna was decidedly pessimistic – and envious of her roommate, who stayed at the Institute because her 'situation' hadn't been 'resolved' yet - before she got crammed into the back of the X-Van with three other people. And with the way that Bobby drove, it got even more crowded because Jamie was sitting right next to her. He multiplied every time Bobby swerved around a corner – and she ended up with one clone sprawled over her lap at the intersection by the parking lot.

Luna grabbed her backpack off the floorboard and pushed her way out of the van as soon as it parked. The six of them walked across the parking lot together, but she wasn't paying attention to them. She was watching the other students – the humans – until she reached the steps outside the building.

Bayville High didn't look that different from her old school. Over breakfast, Kurt told her that she could wear her holowatch if she wanted to. It would help her blend in with the others – they were all mutants, but she was the only one whose powers changed her appearance.

"Is that what you did?" Luna asked him, studying his blue furry face and yellow eyes.

"For a while," Kurt admitted around a mouthful of pancake. "It's one thing to be a mutant, but another…"

"To look like one?"

"Ja." He jabbed a fork in her direction agreeably. "We are always on display." Luna thought that was true, but she didn't go upstairs to get her holowatch. She knew she'd be outed as a mutant the minute she stepped out of the car with the other X-Men, so what was the point in hiding? She didn't come all the way to New York to hide.

"I'm not afraid of them." That's what she said to Kurt. She'd dealt with worse at her old school when she was the _only_ mutant she knew. Her first week back – before she knew what she could do and it was only her looks that changed – some kids cornered her after seventh period in the parking lot. A couple boys and a girl beat her up. Her teeth were okay but her nose had to be reset and her face was swollen for days afterwards.

McCoy told her that the X-Men avoided using their powers in public as much as possible. The Institute's relationship to the schoolboard was tenuous, and they didn't need any incidents to give momentum to the anti-mutant movement. People had been throwing around the idea of a mutant ban for the past two years.

So Luna wasn't looking to pick a fight, but she was still surprised that it didn't come to that. People glared, and they whispered to each other, sometimes in earshot – but no one got in her face. No one threatened her. She shared two classes with Jamie and ended up sitting with him in both because none of the humans would partner with them. At lunch, Amara invited her to sit outside. The X-Men ate together. Luna didn't feel like one of them, but it was… nice to be treated like she was.

* * *

After her last class of the day - Algebra II - Luna met the others in front of the X-Van. One cramped car ride later, she walked through the garage door behind Sam and ran into his back when Kurt startled them with a _bamf._ Prefacing his announcement with a genial, 'don't shoot the messenger', he gave them their training schedules for the week. Luna was told to report to the Danger Room with Bobby, Amara, and Ray.

"When do we have time to do our homework?" Luna asked the blond mutant as she stepped into the elevator. Training in the morning, six hours of school, and training in the afternoon.

"Just be glad you've still _got_ homework," Ray replied wryly, "When you're out of school, you have to spend the whole day avoiding Scott."

"You can go to college," Amara said, tugging at her gold gloves until they fit symmetrically. "Like Kitty. She has classes twice a week."

 _I'm **not** Kitty, _Luna thought as the elevator reached the basement. Bobby opened the doors to the Danger Room. It gleamed in different shades of silvery metal. She shifted uncomfortably when the lights changed and Magneto spoke from the control room. " _You will be practicing evasive maneuvers. Your mission is to recover this._ " It was a golden metallic sphere that rolled out of the wall and levitated into the air. It nearly touched the ceiling where it hovered under Magneto's control. _"Begin._ "

"This is a piece of cake," Bobby insisted, turning to face the rest of 'his' team with a grin. "I got it." He rubbed his hands together and aimed for the floor. A whiteish blue light burst out of his hands and formed ice on the ground which Bobby started to shape into a craggy incline. He was building a bridge to the floating sphere above their heads.

Suddenly a panel opened in the wall to their left and two drones - they looked like spiders - unfolded spindly metal legs and skittered onto the floor, swiveling glowing red sensors towards the mutants. "Move!" Ray yelled as the whistle of a laser cut through the air, aimed straight for them. Luna scrambled backwards and the other three dove forward, Amara pushing Bobby's head down. It broke his concentration and he pivoted towards the drones. He froze one while Ray electrocuted the other.

A machine swung down from the ceiling, flat, about the width of a couch cushion. It released a series of spinning discs and Amara's hands lit up. She flung two fiery balls of lava in succession and took out two of the three discs, while Ray shorted out a third. Luna hit the ground covering her head with her hands to avoid the fourth - and it should've crashed into the wall. But instead it stopped in mid-air and swung back towards her, cutting through the middle of Bobby's ice bridge so that half of it tumbled to the floor and shattered. Luna barely got on her feet fast enough to clear the razor-sharp edges.

"Iceman!" Bobby turned at the sound of his codename and froze the disc in mid-air.

Suddenly, the Danger Room floor split into two levels - and Luna let out a cry of surprise as she lost her step. The X-Men were separated. Bobby and Ray were on the higher level, in the middle, while she and Amara ended up on a platform five feet below.

A tremor nearly knocked the girls off their feet, and Amara was the first to notice the rumbling _things_ rolling towards them. There were giant metal balls that had been released into the gap they stood in. "Lunatica, run!" The two of them bolted in the opposite direction while Amara tried to slow the spheres with strategically-aimed fireballs thrown over her shoulder. Luna made the mistake of glancing back so she didn't see the six-inch metal wall that rose out of the floor in front of her.

Luna smacked right into it and staggered backwards, pressing a hand to her forehead and squeezing her eyes shut briefly. Her vision cleared and she ran her hands over the metal, gasping, "No, no, no," under her breath like a chant. There was no way through it, or over it and she looked up for help - all she saw was Berzerker being slung around, snagged in a massive claw fixed to the end of some kind of serpentine metallic arm. The boys had their hands full. "Amara- _Magma!_ " Luna smashed her hands into the wall angrily.

Amara caught up to her and stopped short of the wall. "Hold on," she said, clenching her hands into fists. The flames engulfed her fingers again.

"I'm not going _anywhere_ ," Luna retorted testily, and she spun around and pressed her back against the metal. Amara started to melt the wall, pressing her hands into the metal until it began to give away. "Come on, _come on_."

"That's not helping," Amara replied, "It's working. I just need a minute."

"We don't have a minute!" _Madre de dios._ Luna glimpsed one of the misshapen balls rolling towards them. It was a little slower but would be no less effective at turning them into mutant pancakes. Amara was still focused on the wall but she couldn't melt through it in time.

Luna turned to her and ripped off one glove. She touched Amara's cheek and the two girls gasped in unison.

 _A little girl in a purple sundress with dark brown hair plaited down her back was standing in the doorway of a hospital room. Her housekeeper - Luna instinctively knew that's who the older woman was - held her by the shoulders so that she stood still._

 _There was a woman in the hospital bed - her mother - and the doctor had just turned off the respirator. They had hoped she would start to breathe on her own, but she didn't. She was dying. The doctor stood to the side. The grandmother had to be forcibly pulled away from the body because she was screaming at the doctor, and pushing at the tubes as if that would help her breath better. She wasn't breathing anymore. The father leaned over the bed and his face spasmed, and he took her by the shoulders and said a name over and over and over again. He was crying and speaking rapidly, pleading with his wife - Luna didn't understand what was being said, it was in Portuguese, but she knew what was happening because the little girl knew what was happening. The housekeeper rushed forward to comfort the father, and she left the little girl in the doorway. She forgot about Amara. Everyone forgot about Amara. No one came to comfort her. No one steered her away from the sight of her father collapsing in a strangled, wordless scream of grief. She watched with wide, watery eyes and did not move until a nurse gently pushed her aside._

The moment seemed to last forever but in reality, it was only a few seconds. Amara crumpled against the wall. Luna's entire body trembled with the energy she'd siphoned from her teammate and she sprinted towards the metal balls, crashing into the first, digging her fingers into the grooves left behind by Amara's powers to pull herself up. She jumped onto the ball and dangled off the side briefly until she could reach the ledge with one hand. Then she pulled herself up, kicking off and sending the two balls rolling in the opposite direction where they rammed into the half-melted wall and stilled.

"Magma! Magma, are you okay?" That was Bobby.

 _"Magma is currently indisposed. Complete your mission_." Magneto's voice rang out over the Danger Room intercom.

Bobby traded glances with Ray and with the way his jaw set, Luna could tell he wasn't happy about the orders. "Berzerker, Lunatica, watch my back," he said, turning his attention to what was left of his ice bridge. He started to reform it and behind him, a massive weapon emerged from the floor. Luna ran towards the machine and Ray threw a bolt of electricity at the sensor, disorienting the laser. But instead of collapsing in on itself, the gun began to shoot energy at random. Luna tried to take it apart at the base, and she threw a punch at the joint where the metal arm bent to give the sensor full access to the room. Her fist left a dent in the external paneling, so she hit it again hoping to pop some screws loose. On the third hit, she glimpsed exposed wiring underneath the badly damaged steel exterior.

"Berzerker!" she called out to Ray, and pointed out the wires. One jolt of electricity was all it took to short out the mechanism.

Then Bobby shouted, "I got it!" He was standing on the top of a very unsteady ice structure, but he had the gold sphere in hand.

The Danger Room session was over. The lights changed again, the damaged machinery withdrew, and the floors leveled out. That's when Luna saw that Amara had barely moved. She had drawn her knees to her chest, and she was crying.

"What the hell happened?" Ray demanded, but he didn't wait for an answer before jogging over to Amara to help her up. Bobby was right behind him. Luna followed the three of them but she didn't say anything. The speed and strength were waning now, she'd spent the energy she'd absorbed from that memory. There was nothing to say.


	6. Chapter 6: Kitty

"That was supposed to be a _team_ exercise, and you told them to leave their team member behind," Scott was furious, and barely managed to keep his voice even.

"It was an exercise in evasive maneuvers," Magneto corrected him in a tone that bordered on condescending – like he was humoring Scott's reprimand over the way he handled the training session (and he probably was, but Scott didn't back down). "The students must learn that collateral damage-"

"Her _name_ is Magma."

"-is inevitable. They cannot lose sight of their objective."

"You should have stopped the program," Scott shot back.

"It was a success." And, Magneto added, now they had a record of La Lunatica's enhanced physiological capabilities. A productive training session.

Kitty withdrew from the control room where Scott and Magneto were still arguing, phasing back through the floor (hopefully unnoticed – she had been going for 'subtle' because she wanted to know what was going on). She stepped through the wall of the powered down Danger Room and found Luna still waiting for her outside the elevator. The others had gone upstairs half an hour ago. That was about as long as it took for news to travel at the Institute.

"You used your powers on Amara?"

Kitty opened the elevator door and stepped inside, and the younger mutant followed her. In some ways, Luna reminded her of Danielle Moonstar. Kitty met Dani in a dream last year, the result of her new friend projecting herself into her thoughts - she'd been trapped in a canyon, and was near death when Kitty and Kurt rescued her. Dani had the ability to bring people's nightmares to life through vivid illusions. Her powers frightened everyone on the reservation where she lived. After she recovered from her accident, Kitty had wanted her to stay at the Institute, but she made the decision to go home with her grandfather instead. She struggled with her powers and with using them, and Kitty thought that Luna had similar challenges to overcome. She wanted to help her.

"I don't see what the big deal is." Luna sounded defensive.

"Well," Kitty didn't see what happened, but she got the gist, "Did you ask her permission?" Jean was very conscientious about the use of her telepathy, for example. She would never read someone's mind without their knowledge (not intentionally).

Luna glared at her. "Am I supposed to ask permission in the real world? Why don't _you_ ask permission before you walk through people?"

"Hey, I'm _not_ attacking you," so no need to make things personal. And Kitty was doing better about not walking in on people (or through them). Luna had a point, she supposed. She would never ask permission mid-simulation, and she definitely didn't do it in the middle of a fight.

"Everybody else is."

"No, they're not," maybe they were staring, and/or having clandestine arguments behind closed doors – but no one was accusing Luna of anything, "The X-Men aren't like that."

Kitty stepped out of the elevator on the second floor and bumped right into Tabby. As soon as she saw Luna, her eyes narrowed and she demanded, "Luna, right? What'd you do to Amara?"

"Nothing." Luna was hostile.

"Bullshit." Kitty had never seen Tabby this mad – she was the most easy-going person she knew, "She won't stop crying 'cause of you. What's your problem?"

"I don't _have_ a problem."

"Tabby, come on," Kitty cut in, putting a hand on Luna's shoulder – a gesture of solidarity that the younger girl immediately shrugged off. "It was a mistake. She didn't mean to hurt Amara." Her powers would've been a challenge for any mutant to handle, and she was only sixteen. What she needed was acceptance and understanding – which was what the Xavier Institute promised her. That was the only way she'd-

"It wasn't a _mistake_ ," Luna snapped at Kitty first, "I did what I had to do to beat the Danger Room. We would've both been crushed if I hadn't."

"This isn't Apocalypse, it's a frickin' school!" Tabitha barked in response, "You weren't in any _real_ danger!"

"Not everyone takes their training as a joke," Kitty tried to defend Luna's actions but she blurted the words out before she thought them through - but she didn't _mean_ to suggest that Boom Boom didn't take the important stuff seriously, it was just…

"Amara sure as hell doesn't."

"I'll check on her-" Kitty wasn't choosing sides, even if that was what Tabby thought she was doing.

"Don't bother." The blonde glared at both of them, but her last words were for Luna. "You better stay out of 'Mara's mind – and her memories, got it?" She turned and stomped down the hall to Amara's room, throwing a timebomb into the potted fern on the accent table next to the bathroom. It exploded as soon as she slammed the door shut. Dirt and broken ceramic littered the floor, and Kitty sighed.

And because the timing literally couldn't get any better, that was when her phone rang. She hadn't even had time to change into her uniform before she went downstairs, and she still had it in her pocket. The number was one she didn't recognize, and if she was paying attention she would've noticed it had the same area code as Pietro's.

But she didn't, so she sounded as discouraged (and distracted) as she felt when she answered impatiently, "Hello?"

" _Uh, hey Kitty_."

"Lance?" She was surprised. It showed in her voice.

" _Yeah. Pietro said you called_." Pietro actually told him she called?

"I did-" she took one look at Luna's face and shifted the phone to one ear, "Look, I can't really talk right now. I'm in the middle of a thing- can I call you back? Like, in an hour?"

" _Yeah, okay._ "

"At this number?"

" _Yeah._ "

"Great. Talk to you later." Kitty hung up the phone. She felt guilty even though she thought she was doing the right thing – it wasn't that she didn't feel bad for Amara, or what it was she must've seen. It just seemed really important not to lay the blame on Luna (although she clearly needed some help in the 'acknowledging-my-powers-can-hurt-people-and-how-do-I-manage-that' department) because she was a new recruit and she hadn't even been here a week before they threw her in a danger room session with more experienced X-Men. Maybe she should've been assigned to the group with Jamie and Alison…

"This isn't going to take an hour, is it?" Luna was in a bad mood, and she was trying Kitty's (not very substantial) patience. Kitty was trying to channel her inner Jean but it was… not… working.

"What exactly happens when you use your powers?" She steered the girl towards her room, giving Amara's a wide berth and grateful that the voices on the other side were muffled.

Luna replied reluctantly, "I see a memory. I'm _in_ the memory, I live it with them. I feel what they feel, I know what they know." And afterwards? She got a boost of speed and strength from the strong (negative) emotions associated with that memory.

"What did you see?"

Luna shook her head. She refused to say. She said it was 'private', which was a little ironic but Kitty let it go. It was something she should probably talk to Amara about. The senior X-Man left Luna outside her room and she wished she had some… like, profoundly wise thing to say, but she couldn't think of the right words.

So instead she gave it her best shot. "Don't take Tabby too seriously, okay? Amara is her best friend, she's upset right now, but she'll come around," Kitty didn't know Tabitha to hold a grudge, especially when they both knew there wasn't any malice in what Luna did. She was scared (even if she didn't want to admit it), so she used her powers. Anyone could relate to that. "We are glad you're here," Kitty insisted, "And we're going to work with you and your powers." Nothing had changed in the way they were going to treat her. She was still welcome here. People just needed a few hours to cool off. That's all it was.

* * *

Half an hour later, Kitty disentangled herself from the rest of the X-Men and she remembered what she was planning to do. If she wasn't so busy worrying about Luna getting accused of something, or Amara not leaving her room, or Tabby being mad at her, then she might have been anxious about giving Lance a call. When she heard his voice and recognized it, her stomach did an uncomfortable flip that reminded her... well, she really didn't want to think about what it meant.

She just had a lot going on and she wished - not for the first time - that Jean was here. Hank said it would be 'a couple more days'. What did that mean? A couple days including yesterday because that would make this day two... or was it a couple days starting on Monday? The sooner Jean and the Professor got back, the better.

Kitty stood in the middle of her (empty) bedroom. Rogue gave her some privacy, which she was grateful for. She redialed Lance and the phone rang four times - she thought she'd be stuck with an answering machine again, but then she heard the click of a pick-up and his voice on the other end, _"Yeah?"_

"It's Kitty."

 _"Yeah, I know_. _"_ Right. He obviously knew her number so...

"Did Pietro tell you why I called?"

 _"Uh, not really."_

"Are you guys in New York?"

She heard him hesitate. _"...yeah."_

"When did you get back?"

 _"We didn't, uh, leave."_

"You've been in New York the whole time?" _And you didn't tell me?_ Kitty was under the impression that Lance was leaving, like, for good. That's what it sounded like when he said he was taking S.H.I.E.L.D.'s offer of employment because there wasn't anything for him in Bayville - and trust her, that hurt - and she assumed that he was off somewhere... doing whatever, spy training (he would make the _worst_ spy, she thought).

 _"...yeah."_

"Wow, okay."

 _"Kitty..."_

"No, it's... fine," totally fine, she wasn't mad at all - in fact, she was over it, remember? "I know you hate flying so that's... just great." There was silence on the other end of the line, until Kitty spoke again. Did she sound annoyed? She _was_ annoyed. "So, I was calling to ask if you knew whether or not S.H.I.E.L.D. was still into kidnapping people? Like they tried to do with Laura?"

 _"Who?"_

"X-23." She took a name for herself. Kitty forgot that most people outside of the Institute wouldn't know her, let alone what she was going by.

 _"Uh, I dunno._ " Not the answer she was looking for, and all of a sudden _he_ got defensive. " _ **I**_ _didn't do it, if that's what you're getting at_."

"I know _you_ didn't do it, I was there."

" _S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to kidnap somebody?"_

"Well, we don't _know_ if it was S.H.I.E.L.D., that's why I called. Whoever it was went after a mutant," and Kitty knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. was _really_ interested in mutants lately - enough to offer jobs to the one-time enemies of the X-Men.

 _"You okay?"_

"Yeah, I'm fine. They were human, it was no big deal." But if the X-Men hadn't been there, it could've been a big deal. "So was it S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

 _"I dunno, Kitty. I didn't hear anything_."

"Would you tell me if you had?"

 _"C'mon, Kitty._ " He sounded exasperated.

"Fine," she relented, "Thanks anyway." That was a bust on the S.H.I.E.L.D. front. Either they weren't involved, or they just weren't talking about it in front of their brand-new mutant recruits. That was a real possibility.

 _"Yeah."_ So, that was it? Kitty didn't know what else to add. She opened her mouth to say she was hanging up now when Lance spoke again. _"There's one more thing,_ " he said belatedly.

"What?"

 _"S.H.I.E.L.D. knows that Mastermind's back. They caught him on surveillance... uh, somewhere in the city."_

Mastermind. How did she know that name? "That's the guy who... altered Wanda's memories, right?"

 _"Yeah."_ For Magneto. He did that so that she couldn't remember what he did to her - locking her away in an institution for years because her powers made her too dangerous. And there was no reversing what Mastermind had done, so everybody just lived with the lie.

"What's he doing here?"

 _"I dunno. Pietro's checking it out."_

"Okay. Well, um, thanks."

 _"Yeah._ "

"I should probably get back," Kitty added with forced lightness, "But it was nice talking to you." 'I guess.' "Maybe I'll see you around."

 _"Yeah."_

"Bye Lance." He was as talkative as she remembered… which was not very. They used to talk on the phone a lot but that was when they still had some stuff in common - like going to school, and living in Bayville. Kitty couldn't believe he hadn't told her about New York, that he had _never even left_. And she was even more frustrated by the fact that it bothered her. He didn't owe her anything, they weren't 'together' anymore, so why did it hurt her feelings?

 _Bamf._

"Kurt, _go away_." She shoved her phone up under her pillow.

He brushed off her annoyance and raised his brows. "Don't you want to see Jean?" he asked innocently.

 _"What?_ "

Kurt flashed her a toothy grin. "Scott just got a call," he said, "They're less than an hour away."

"Let's go." Kitty wanted to go downstairs and be there to welcome them - so Kurt took her by the hand and they both teleported to the foyer, joining Scott. Jean and the Professor were _finally_ coming home. That was the best news Kitty had heard all day.


	7. Chapter 7: Tabitha

**A/N:** I like many different pairings in the Evo-verse. This fic has both M/F and F/F relationships depicted and I have paired Tabby/Amara together for this story. If you are not interested in that pairing, feel free to skip this chapter. If you are, I hope you enjoy it! :) Trigger warnings for reference to parental death (Amara).

* * *

Professor X gave Tabby a pretty sweet deal. She got to live at the mansion, free cable and food and stuff, but she wore her own clothes and didn't have to join the squad. Tabby liked the X-Geeks and she was down for helping out when they needed a little _bada-bing, bada-boom_ to get the job done - but she thought teams were stupid.

And the best part? She got to room with her best friend. The first time she met Amara, girl just got off the plane from Brazil, showed up at the mansion in a chauffeured car, and didn't even know how to work a washing machine. Tabby learned later that her dad was mad rich, and she'd never had to do chores before 'cause she had maids and a chef that did all that stuff for her. It was nothing like the way Tabby grew up.

But Amara wasn't a snob. She didn't act like she was better than other people. She was real, and she was sweet, and she knew how to have fun once Tabby got her out of her shell. Boom Boom had a lot of friends, and a lot of 'boyfriends', but she could take or leave most of 'em. Amara was different. She was the one person that Tabby trusted to always have her back – no matter what.

So when somebody messed with 'Mara, they messed with her.

"Hey." Tabby's scowl softened when she closed the door and spoke to her roommate. Amara wasn't crying anymore. She was sitting on the bed cross-legged with her back against the wall, a pillow in her lap. Her long brown hair was in her eyes. "How are you doing? Did it wear off?"

Amara shook her head slightly, and she closed her eyes briefly to pull herself together. "It's not like that. She didn't _hurt_ me, I was just… surprised." Tabby arched a brow dubiously. Amara wasn't a crier so she didn't buy that.

"'Bout what?" Tabby crossed the room to sit on the edge of the bed, facing the other girl.

"It's nothing," Amara managed, but she wouldn't look at her.

Tabby leaned forward until they were eye-to-eye, even through the curtain of hair. "You can tell me, 'Mara." She knew she could trust her, right? Tabby would take it to the grave, whatever it was.

"I know," she glanced up and it looked like she was trying really hard not to cry. It made Tabby want to bomb that girl's – Luna's – breakfast. "I just feel… embarrassed, I completely froze. I let everybody down."

"No, you didn't," was she crazy? That was a load of crap, "Those losers let _you_ down." Bobby tried to sniff around earlier and Tabby told him to get lost. If he wasn't gonna help 'Mara when it counted, he could get somebody else to make him feel better about what a jerk he'd been.

"It's not their fault," Amara replied, "I mean, not really. Magneto was the one who said they had to finish the training."

"The Caped Douchebag?" Following his orders? She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, that's such a good call, guys." Tabby didn't listen to anybody who'd wear such a goofy-ass helmet as a fashion statement (even if he shelved it after moving in). Plus Magneto was a total dick of a dad.

Amara almost laughed which made Tabby smile – a little – because that was a glimpse of her girl. Her shoulders hunched a little but she didn't say anything. "Do you wanna talk about it?" the blonde asked. The only thing 'Mara had said when she got back to the room was that she'd seen her mom. She never talked about her. Tabby had never met her, or seen a picture of her – and she didn't ask.

"I've never seen _papai_ like that," she admitted softly.

"Like what?"

"The way he was when my mother died." Amara glanced up. "I barely remember her. She died when I was six. I didn't… I didn't know I was there, and now it's all I can think about. I can't believe I forgot about her, Tabitha." She squeezed the pillow in her lap and pulled it to her chest. Tabby scooted forward on the mattress.

"You were a kid, 'Mara," and who remembered what they were doing at six years old? Nobody. Tabitha didn't remember jack. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I felt like I did," she replied, words muffled by the way she pressed her face against the pillow, "I remember feeling like it was my fault that she got sick."

"But you _know_ it's not," Tabby insisted, and she put a hand on the pillow, pushed it down to look at Amara. "Your mom got sick, and that's shitty. And it happened because life is shitty sometimes, and bad things happen to people who don't deserve it," 'cause the world wasn't fair. "And it's not anybody's fault." And it definitely wouldn't have been Amara's.

"I know," she agreed ruefully, "I know that in my head, but what I _feel_ is guilty, and scared, and… alone."

That chick's powers really did a number on Amara, and Tabby pulled her into a hug, wrapping her arms around her friend and pulling her close. "You are _not_ alone, okay?" she said against her hair, blowing a raspberry when the brunette nodded and she got a mouthful of hair. Tabby drew back with a lopsided smile. "You're my girl, remember? I'm not going anywhere." If Amara ever decided to split from the X-Men, she'd go with her – but if she was in it for the long haul, so was Tabby.

"Thanks, Tabitha."

She winked in response to Amara's watery smile. "You know I love ya, right?"

She nodded. "I love you too."

Tabby was pretty impulsive – anybody who knew her knew that, she did what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it – so she didn't think twice when 'Mara said that. She leaned in and kissed her on the mouth. It wasn't a long kiss. It was a peck, that's all.

But it startled Amara, who gasped, " _Tabitha_ ," in a way that almost made Tabby embarrassed – or it would have if she ever got embarrassed (she didn't).

She flashed her a big grin – one of those unapologetic, yeah-I-know-what-I-did-what-are-you-gonna-do-about-it? grins that was her specialty – but before she could top it with a smug reply, someone knocked at Amara's door. A flash of irritation crossed her features and she turned, " _What?_ "

"It's Kurt," _Blue_. Tabby wasn't ticked off at him, and she relaxed. "Just thought you'd want to know – Jean's on her way home."

"Cool. Thanks!" She didn't offer to let him in, but her tone brightened. She glanced at Amara, "What do you think? Feel up to saying 'hey'?"

Amara still looked… Tabby couldn't put her finger on it, so she pretended not to notice. She hopped off the bed and put her hands on her hips expectantly. "Sure, I guess," Amara replied tentatively, "I'd like to see Jean." She gave a real smile that time. "I just need a couple minutes."

"Say no more." Tabby saluted her, "I'll see you downstairs." She yanked open the bedroom door and yelled, "Hey Blue, you still up here? How about giving a girl a ride?"

Kurt popped back into view from who knows where and complained, "I'm not a taxi service."

"You know you love it, cutie," she dismissed casually, tapping him on the nose. "Take me to the party!"


	8. Chapter 8: Kitty

**A/N:** Happy New Year! For those who are wondering, the Hellfire Club will be making an appearance shortly. :) Thanks for reading!

* * *

Jean and the Professor hadn't taken either of the X-Jets. They drove.

From what Kitty understood – which honestly wasn't very much – it wasn't really about the _where_. The Professor had been working with Jean to control her powers. They were still growing. But Apocalypse had gotten to him – had turned him into one of the four horsemen – and during the battle in Egypt Jean used Cerebro to try to free the Professor from the mind control. When she couldn't do that, she held her own against him. Kitty hadn't been there – she was in Mexico, taking on a similarly brainwashed Magneto with the Brotherhood - she hadn't seen it… but she'd been told the strain of that psychic fight put Jean in a vulnerable place. So she and the Professor had left for… some quality telepathic time, or something like that. Like she said, it wasn't about a physical place. It was a mental thing. And it was important that Jean be able to focus solely on herself, on rebuilding what had been stripped away. That's why they respected the 'no calls' rule. To give Jean the space she and the Professor needed.

The fact that they'd gotten back in touch so suddenly – it had to be a good thing, right? They must've made some big breakthrough. Kitty thought that was definitely worth celebrating.

By the time Jean and the Professor pulled through the front gates, (almost) _everyone_ was waiting for them. They were mobbed as soon as they got out of the car, and Hank and the Professor were already deep in discussion by the time they reached the foyer. Jean looked a little tired, but good. She seemed happy to be back.

Kitty was one of the first to throw her arms around the redhead. "I missed you so much, Jean."

She could feel Jean laugh a little, modestly, and felt the squeeze of a returned hug. "I missed you too, Kitty."

The two X-girls broke apart and Kitty smiled up at her friend. "It just hasn't been the same without you." And now she felt like things were _finally_ getting back to normal.

Rogue greeted Jean next and Kurt took her luggage upstairs. Then she spoke to the rest of the X-Men in turn – Bobby, Roberto, Sam, Jamie, Ray, Amara – and even introduced herself to Alison, who'd come downstairs to check out what everybody else was so excited about. Luna was noticeably absent and Laura kept her distance. She nodded to Jean, though, which was about as 'nice' as she got.

Scott stood back from the others because he didn't want to crowd her. But he didn't take his gaze off of her and she searched for him, green eyes sweeping above the heads of the X-Kids. Then she saw him.

Jean took a small breath before she said his name, "Scott." He stepped forward and Kitty could see the tension in his jaw and his shoulders soften.

"Welcome home, Jean." She smiled at him and he moved to hug her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She rested her cheek on his shoulder, face turned inward toward his neck. And she didn't say a word but Kitty just knew they were talking, saying things that maybe… not everyone needed to hear. She and Kurt used to make fun of them – it took them long enough to get together, and then they could be so sappy with the flowers and the soul-searching gazes into each other's _eyes_ – but no one was laughing now. It was hard for someone like Scott to stand aside and to recognize that this was something Jean had to do on her own. He'd do anything for her. And everybody knew that Jean tempered Scott's rigid personality, and she helped him to loosen up (a little, much to the gratitude of _the whole mansion_ ). Sometimes he walked around like he had the world on his shoulders. Jean was always there to bear the weight with him.

And without her? He just wasn't himself. He pushed them harder than before, he smiled less (not that he was ever much of a practical joker - that was Kurt's area of expertise). He never slacked on his job, he never contradicted the Professor's decision (not openly), but this was hard on him. It took a lot out of him not to show how worried he was about Jean. Not that anyone would have blamed him but Scott shielded his insecurities and anxieties from the rest of the team. Kitty guessed he didn't see those parts of himself as fitting his 'leadership role'.

"Al _right_ ," Boom Boom hooted gleefully, over the dull roar of the rest of the X-Men excitedly talking to one another, "Let's get this party started!"

Jean and Scott broke apart and she laughed lightly. "What party?"

"The one we wanted to throw for you," Kitty chimed in, glancing between Tabby – was she still mad? – and Jean. Scott said they should wait but… that was _then_ , and this was _now_. And the last few days had been super stressful so she thought it'd be a _great_ idea.

"Well," Jean began, glancing around the room at the eager faces of all the X-Kids, "That's very thoughtful of you girls, but Scott and I were planning to go out…" alone, "Could we take a raincheck on the party until the weekend?" Kitty didn't blame her for turning them down – she must have been exhausted, and she deserved some alone time with her boyfriend – but she was still a little disappointed. She felt like everyone could use a night to unwind.

"Raincheck, got it." Tabby was the first to respond, shrugging off the party like it was no big deal.

"No problem, Jean."

"Yeah. Friday's good too."

"Not like we got anything else to do." The murmured consensus followed – reassuring her - and Jean's face relaxed into one of those hundred watt smiles that made her 'Miss Popularity' in school. Then she and Scott made their excuses – Jean said she had to 'unpack' - and went upstairs together. Boom Boom wolf-whistled after them.

Now that the guest of honor was gone, the rest of the X-Men glanced around at each other. Bobby shrugged. "So much for the party."

"I got a pile of calc homework with my name on it," Sam agreed. His Kentucky drawl dipped in resignation.

"C'mon, boys," Tabby teased, fingers tugging at the belt-loops of her frayed shorts, "You're not gonna punk out on me, are you?"

" _I'm_ not," Alison interjected bluntly. Sam gave her a sideways look and she preened, tossing blonde hair over one shoulder.

"You heard Jean," Kurt said, arching a furry brow in Boom Boom's direction.

"Yeahhhh," she replied with a grin, "They're going out. So let's _all_ go out."

"And do what?" Sam asked.

"Man, we should go to the fairgrounds," Bobby said, clapping his friend on the shoulder, "They've got all kinds of cool Halloween stuff going on. Haunted house, corn maze, free food, the works. It's sweet."

"That's a good idea," Roberto grudgingly admitted (annoyed he hadn't thought of it first).

"Yeah, let's do it," Jamie agreed, "I wanna go!"

Ray nodded. Kurt's ears perked up at the mention of 'free food'. "That sounds fun," Kitty admitted, "I don't remember them having that last year." Either because Bayville didn't sponsor it - or because it was right in the middle of some bad anti-mutant protests so 'Halloween' didn't seem like a good idea. Some people were jerks.

"'Mara?"

Amara smiled softly, "Sure."

"Way to go, Bobby," Tabby said approvingly, "We're gonna get our Halloween on."

"Don't y'all remember what day of the week it is?" Rogue reminded them, hands on her hips. _Monday._ "We still got curfew," and half the people in this room had to go to school tomorrow. Five-thirty a.m. wake up call. Kitty doubted that Scott would cancel a morning training session just because Jean was back.

"So?"

"So everybody has to be back by ten," Kitty said, excitement waning in response to Rogue's reality check.

Tabby waved it off. "That's a million hours from now." Seeing the uncertainty in some people's faces, she said, "Look, me and 'Mara are rolling out after dinner. Be there or be lame."

* * *

Kitty was _not_ lame. She did have class tomorrow but she'd finished (most of) her homework on Friday. Her parents weren't thrilled that she was going to college 'part time' - and that she'd chosen a local school so that she could be closer to the X-Men. She and her dad had a long talk about whether or not she was 'marginalizing' herself by letting the X-Men influence her academic decisions.

But what her dad didn't seem to understand was that... as a mutant, she was already marginalized. If he didn't think admissions offices excluded mutants from getting into school, then he hadn't been following the news closely enough. There were no laws in place to protect them from discrimination - and the persistence of that 'mutant ban' just proved how far they had to go. Besides, the X-Men would never pressure her one way or the other. The Professor was extremely supportive. Being here in Bayville with them was what _she_ wanted. She wanted to go to a school without a killer commute that would allow her to live at the Institute while taking classes. She was doing her best to balance both her education and her obligations to the X-Men.

And sometimes, she just needed a night off.

So she ate dinner quickly and changed her clothes. But she wasn't sure if it was such a good idea to bring Alison along. The boys were fine with it, and she guessed it would be a good thing if she bonded with some of her potential teammates. It might convince her to stick around. But what about those men who went after her in Brooklyn? If they'd bothered to ask the Professor or Hank before leaving, Kitty bet one of them would've vetoed this.

"Kätzchen, relax. Bobby'll keep an eye on her," Kurt reminded her for the third time since they left the Institute.

"Yeah, _that's_ reassuring." Kitty liked Bobby but sometimes he could be really... irresponsible. He was taking the X-Van with the guys and Alison. Everyone else was getting a ride with Kitty. Her parents had bought her a car as a belated graduation present. She got it in September: a totally cute, totally safe four-door car. It was blue. She hadn't had any accidents... unless you counted the driver's side mirror that she broke off when she ran into a dumpster, but that was fixed now. And you couldn't even see the scratches on the front bumper where she got in a fender bender with the front gate.

Even though she was completely legal, Rogue still insisted on driving (and Kurt agreed). So Kitty sat in the passenger's seat and took charge of the radio. Fifteen minutes later they'd pulled into the grounds and parked a few cars down from the X-Van. Everybody agreed to meet back here at a quarter to ten and then they split up. Kurt joined Amara and Tabby for a run through the haunted house, Roberto saw a pretty girl from school and decided to hit on her by the caramel apple stand, and the rest of them went for the free cider and the live music.

That left Rogue and Kitty standing by an impressive display of gourds and pumpkins.

"Ooh let's do the corn maze," Kitty suggested brightly, pulling a reluctant Rogue over in the direction of a scarecrow dangling an 'entrance' sign. "This is so cute. It reminds me of the fall festivals I used to go to as a kid," with her parents, back before her powers ever manifested. "We have a _lot_ of corn mazes in Illinois," which outside of Chicago wasn't known for very much - but Halloween? Illinois could do Halloween.

"I don't know, Kitty." Rogue eyed the scarecrow's red painted maw unenthusiastically. "I just ain't in the mood."

Kitty turned to Rogue and gave her best attempt at puppy dog eyes. "Come on, Rogue, it'll take us... like, ten minutes," she said persuasively, linking arms with her friend, "Besides, I thought this was your favorite holiday."

"It used to be." Back before people started dressing up as 'muties' and acting like it was funny. It wasn't. Rogue glanced at Kitty through her heavy make-up and something in her roommate's face made her sigh. "Alright, fine, I'm comin'," she muttered, "But nothin' better jump out at me."

The two girls stepped into the shadow of the corn maze and took the first left they saw, passing by a skeleton slumped over a hay bale. "What's going on?" Kitty asked her after a few seconds, "You seem... kind of bummed." Rogue wasn't a very sociable person and it'd taken some cajoling to get her to agree to come at all, but this was more than that. "Trouble with a certain Cajun we all know and love?" By 'love' she meant 'tolerate (until he proves he is not super shady and going to hurt our friend)'.

Rogue glared at her. " _No._ "

Kitty pursed her lips to hide her smile. "Okay."

"We're just _friends_."

"Mhm," Kitty changed the subject clumsily, "Oh hey, look at that. Creepy." At the end of another row of corn there were cobwebs draped over the hay - and a doll in a child's rocking chair. The front of its face was covered in blood. _Ugh_.

"I'm worried about Jean." Okay, so maybe it really _wasn't_ about Gambit.

That got Kitty's attention. "Why?"

Rogue just shook her head, lifting a strand of cobweb - and the fat, plastic tarantula glued to it - to walk under it. "You weren't in her head, the last time that kinda thing happened." Jean lost control of her powers once before, and they overwhelmed her. She started hearing dozens of voices at once, and her telekinesis flung a shotput ball through the principal's window and nearly skewered Kitty. People could've died if Rogue hadn't risked her life to take on some of that energy, that confusion, so she could be stabilized. "I've never felt anythin' so... chaotic. If she's back to square one," on account of what happened with Apocalypse and what it cost her to do what she did, "It's gonna take more than a couple weeks..."

"I know that." Kitty wasn't in her head, true, but she was there when it happened. "But I bet the Professor will keep working with her at the Institute. They wouldn't have come back if things weren't okay." Right? It wasn't like there was a crisis at the Institute that cut the roadtrip short. It was a choice. That was a good sign.

Rogue shrugged. "Maybe you're ri-"

" _Raaaaaar!"_

Some guy with a plastic werewolf mask jumped out in front of them.

Kitty shrieked - and immediately stepped into a defensive position. Rogue just _gut punched_ him.

 _"Oof_." He hit the ground on his knees with a groan, and gasped through the mask, "What the _fuck_ , man!"

Rogue exhaled once harshly, and crossed her arms over her chest unsympathetically. "Don't jump out at people if ya don't want to get smacked," she shot back, and Kitty bit back a laugh. Her Mississippi accent got a lot thicker when she was ticked off. Rogue turned to her. "C'mon."

"Sorry," she said to the boy as she stepped past him, still cursing in the dirt, "But she's right, you know. You really shouldn't scare people."

Kitty and Rogue took a left but it was a dead end with some gruesome severed body parts under the skull and crossbones sign. They took a right instead, and then another right past a coffin with a lopsidedly wrapped mummy inside. Kitty skirted the edge of the coffin but he didn't move. He was just a dummy.

"I talked to Lance earlier," she said.

Rogue gave her the side eye. "And?"

"And... nothing. It was, like, a two second conversation," Kitty didn't really want to talk about _him_ , but she did want to talk about what he had told her. Some of it was interesting. "He says he doesn't know anything about Alison," and she believed him, "But he _also_ said that they're concerned Mastermind is back in New York. He's in the city."

Rogue was silent for a moment, working through what that might mean. "Ya think Magneto's up to somethin'?"

Kitty shrugged. "I don't _know_ , and I don't want to be the first one to say it," since the Professor trusted him and everything, "What if I'm wrong? Then I'll just look like a jerk."

"If anybody's used up their 'benefit of the doubt' chances, it'd be him," Rogue replied matter-of-factly, "We could do some recon on our own."

"That's true." Kitty hated to keep secrets from the Professor - and she was a really bad liar - but she genuinely thought there was something _to this._ And if she told Scott that she got this info from talking to Lance, he wasn't going to listen to her. He'd be too busy telling her what a bad idea that was. Jean might be able to talk him around but Kitty didn't want to dump this on her. She _just_ got home. And why couldn't they handle this on their own? They were senior X-Men.

The only downside she could see - right now, anyway - was that she didn't know where to start to look for Mastermind - and then to follow him to see what he was up to. And maybe he was up to nothing, but S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't be concerned over 'nothing'.

Kitty was about to mention that when she heard the most obnoxious _revving_ sound coming from behind her. She turned and saw some creepy guy wearing a bloody apron, a hockey mask, some dirty jeans, and carrying a chainsaw. He was lumbering straight towards them.

"Let's cut this guy a break," Kitty murmured. Instead of fighting him, in the spirit of Halloween they could do what most people did when faced with a mass murderer, "And run!" Rogue protested when Kitty grabbed her by a gloved hand and pulled her down the path.

It turned out to be the right one, because a few minutes later the two emerged from the corn maze no worse for wear.

"Hey look, they've got face painting!"

"Forget it," Rogue said with a sharp gesture, putting her foot down, "I am _done_. And I am not lettin' anybody near my face." It wasn't just about her powers. Rogue wasn't big on makeovers in any capacity - and she'd had about enough excitement for tonight after her confrontation with the 'werewolf'.

"Will you at least come with me?" Like, as moral support, "I want to check out the booth."

Rogue glanced around and did a double take. Over on the stage, Alison had taken over the paid entertainment and she was singing karaoke with Bobby. "Fine," Rogue only agreed because of the two options, Kitty's seemed a little less painful. Not that Alison was a bad singer, but Rogue didn't feel like watching the two of them make fools of themselves.

The face painting booth was amazing: glitter tattoos, henna, and a catalog of sparkly designs. Kitty figured she might be a little too old for this, but tonight was supposed to be a fun night (a do-whatever-you-want-until-curfew night) and she could wash it off before tomorrow. It was only two dollars for a partial paint job and there were no kids in line behind her... so Kitty fished out the crinkled bills from her wallet and pointed out exactly what she wanted.

Rogue left halfway through the paint job to get some cider - and a break, she wanted to see where Kurt had gotten to - while Kitty chatted with the artist about the latest episode of _Veronica Mars_ (which, they'd both discovered, they shared an interest in). The artist painted a green mask around her eyes in the shape of a dragon's wings, and its cute little head was right in the middle of her forehead. It looked just like Lockheed - her favorite stuffed animal, a little dragon they still slept with sometimes when she had a _really_ bad day - and she finished in under fifteen minutes. It took that long for Rogue to get back with the cider.

"This looks _so cute_ ," Kitty gasped as the artist turned the mirror towards her. She turned her face to the side so it caught the light and she could see the glitter, "Thank you so much, Melanie. It's the best." She was so happy with the paint job that she poured the rest of her change into the tip jar.

She got up, and that's when she saw Rogue's face. "What? What is it? You don't like it?"

Rogue shook her head. "It ain't that," she said, handing Kitty a small plastic cup full of juice. "Look who's here." She stepped out of the way and steered Kitty towards the pumpkin display. There, standing there, looking just as sullen as she remembered...

" _Lance?_ " Oh my _god_. Kitty immediately spun around and hissed at Rogue to _come here._ "What is he even _doing_ here?" What were the chances, seriously, that Lance of all people would show up at the same Halloween festival that she was at on the same night? After he'd managed to avoid her for four months with no problem? The odds were, like, a million to one.

Rogue raised a brow. "Why don't ya just _ask_ him?"

"No _way._ " Not with a big dragon painted on her face.

"Kitty, he's lookin' right at us."

"What?"

"I think he saw what you did," turning around _very_ _subtly_ and hoping he didn't see her face (or recognize it), "Go talk to him so _I_ don't have to."

Kitty glanced sideways at Rogue in profile, and her roommate rolled her eyes. She turned around and saw that, yeah, Lance was staring at her. So she did the only thing she could and with a grimace, waved at him. "But I don't _want_ to," she mumbled in response, fully aware that he was watching their exchange.

"I'm not the only one who figured that out," Rogue replied, and that made her feel bad. She did want to avoid Lance - or at least, not run into him when she was hanging out with her friends and doing something as silly as getting her face painted - but she didn't want to be mean. He _did_ give her a call when he didn't have to, and he gave her information that was actually useful. "Just use it as an excuse to find out more about Mastermind."

She had a good point - and even better, it would keep Kitty on task. Maybe then she wouldn't say anything stupid. "Okay."

"I'll keep the others out of your hair," Rogue promised, and that might've been a nice gesture if she didn't use it as an excuse to leave.

Kitty took the first step towards Lance and once it was clear to him she wasn't just going to blow him off, he helped bridge the distance between them. He looked good. She thought S.H.I.E.L.D. would've put him in a uniform, but he was still wearing old jeans with the knees worn out - it wasn't a stylistic choice, it was more of a 'he-probably-only-has-three-pairs-of-jeans-to-his-name' thing - and a black t-shirt with a logo so faded in grey she couldn't read it. He'd gotten rid of that ugly vest he used to wear all the time, but he still had the gloves. His hair was longer than she remembered.

She always felt small next to him because he was a good six inches taller than her, and broad-shouldered. He was built like a... rock. Kitty felt nervous but she wasn't _intimidated_ by him, not even when he stopped about a foot away from her. He seemed uncomfortable too. He wouldn't meet her eyes. She hadn't seen him since their last big fight. Things were over for good between them and Kitty could _not_ be happier. Right? _So much happier_.

"Here to pick up a pumpkin?" To decorate his new digs at S.H.I.E.L.D.? "That's pretty festive of you."

"Hey Kitty." He paused, then frowned in response, "No."

"Hi." Why did she say that?

"What's on your face?"

Kitty tilted her chin up confidently. "It's a _dragon_ ," she said, deciding to own the face paint because Lance Alvers was _not_ going to make her feel self-conscious, showing up in places he had no business being, "Obviously." It was very clearly a dragon. Anybody could have guessed that.

"Yeah, but... why?"

Kitty was getting annoyed - four seconds into the conversation, this was _such_ a good record - because she could feel herself starting to blush. So she went on the offensive and got snarky. "Because it's _fun_ ," and because this was a Halloween festival, and it was practically free, and why not? "Why do _you_ care? Are you part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s face paint division now?"

Lance's bemusement shifted into a scowl. "No."

"Good," because that would be a pretty lame division. "What are you doing here?" That was a way more important question than what Kitty had on her face, "Are you following me?" she demanded, because she just didn't believe in coincidences - not like this. This was one of the last places she expected to find Lance.

" _No_." He glared at her. "I-"

"Oh, so you expect to believe you just strolled over here because you're such a big fan of hot cider?" And he had to come to the exact same place in Bayville that Kitty just happened to be at with her friends? Please. How dumb did he think she was?

"What? No." Lance wasn't a 'hot cider' kind of guy, Kitty knew better. That's why this was so ridiculous. "I-"

"Then what?"

Lance said nothing.

"Well?"

"Are you gonna stop interrupting me?"

Kitty glowered at him. He glowered right back at her. "Sorry." Not really.

He waited a beat, and when she didn't open her mouth he said, "I was gonna say, Boom Boom invited us."

"You talk to Boom Boom?" Did she talk to everyone? Or did Lance only ignore Kitty?

"Not really. She told Pietro. He told me."

"Why?" Didn't that seem a little weird? Pietro didn't even want to give Kitty Lance's phone number. Why would he tell him where to find her?

"Dunno."

"Where are the rest of your friends?"

"Wanda's at home. Toad's with her. Blob's here though." Lance nodded to his left and Kitty turned. The guy was even bigger than she remembered, just _huge_ and very befitting of his codename, and she couldn't believe she'd missed the sight of him. He was standing in front of the 'free samples' stand, totally dwarfing it with how wide and tall he was, and she could see the volunteer-girl cowering in his shadow. Someone should really go help her.

Just as Kitty came to that conclusion, Tabby hollered across the grounds, "Freddy! Is that _you_?"

 _Thank you, Boom Boom._ She had things under control (sort of), so Kitty turned back to Lance. "What about Pietro?"

He shrugged. "He said he had stuff to do."

"What kind of stuff?" she asked, "Does he know where Mastermind is?"

Lance narrowed his eyes at her. "Dunno." That one word was terse.

"You don't know or you're not going to tell me?" He didn't say anything. He couldn't, or he wouldn't. Either way, Kitty was irritated. "What was the point in S.H.I.E.L.D. telling us about him if-"

"I wasn't tellin' you as S.H.I.E.L.D.," he interrupted her.

"Okay fine. Why did _you_ tell me?" Especially if that was all he knew - or ever planned to tell her about Mastermind. No hint about where he was, or what he was doing, or who he might be involved with.

"I just wanted to give you a head's up," he muttered, in a way that made her think he was starting to regret that decision, "Didn't think I'd be gettin' the third degree about it."

Kitty put her hands on her hips. "What did you expect?"

Lance looked at her. Something in his face hardened. "Nothing," he said finally, glancing away, "Not a goddamned thing. I gotta go."


	9. Chapter 9: Emma

**A/N:** While the X-Kids rock the Halloween festivities, Jean and Scott have a romantic dinner. Unbeknownst to the couple, Emma Frost has followed them to gather information for the Hellfire Club. :) Thanks for reading!

* * *

In September a new French restaurant opened in Bayville – the first of its kind, fawned over by the uncultured masses who recognized the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower on the bathroom wallpaper and thought of themselves as true connoisseurs of Parisian culture – and its menu prices could bankrupt the average high school prom committee. It attracted a certain class of people, primarily the elderly but also the occasional couple celebrating a special anniversary or some such. Scott Summers had chosen this restaurant out of a deep-rooted desire to give his girlfriend the best of himself. It was quite endearing.

As he sat down, he thought about the fact that he and Jean hadn't been on a date since before the events of June, the battle against Apocalypse. "Now that _is_ a long time to go without treating the woman you love to dinner, Mr. Summers," Emma mused softly, the words whispered into the lip of her wine glass, "Tsk, tsk." She took a sip of her Chablis – it was the most expensive wine on the menu, wasn't that quaint? – and gazed out over the dining room. She was one year away from the legal drinking age but she persuaded her waiter that it was unnecessary to card her. People could be so accommodating... if you had the right name, or the right powers.

"What d'you say?"

Emma slow blinked in annoyance and turned her gaze briefly to her date. "I wasn't speaking to you, Paul."

"Oh." He missed the disdain in her voice – but she hadn't chosen him for the stimulating conversation. A former student of Bayville High School, the tall and blond Paul Haitis now worked at his father's car dealership. He had little ambition and no talent, average in every sense of the word.

He couldn't believe his luck, getting a date with _her_. Emma, of course, was anything but average. A very discrete plastic surgeon, the miracles of hair color, and the tenacity of a telepath who knows how to use her powers allowed Emma to blossom in high school from a mousy, middling brunette into the voluptuous blonde businesswoman she was today. On her eighteenth birthday, her father had made her the heir apparent to the family fortune - an offer she had rejected. Emma couldn't stand the thought of living the rest of her life in Winston's shadow, constantly fending off the machinations of the jealous harpies she called sisters. Instead, she had ambitions to start her own company. She was only a junior in college and well on her way to establishing herself as the youngest female CEO in the northeast.

That was how she met Sebastian. She had plans to meet the board director of a multi-billion dollar corporation operating out of Manhattan last May. She hoped to persuade him to sell so that she could rebrand the company in her own image: Frost Enterprises. Imagine her surprise when the twenty-five year old CEO of Shaw Industries took her to lunch instead. The two were mutually aware of each other's surnames as they moved in the same aristocratic social circles (despite having never met face-to-face). Of course, Shaw was _nouveau riche_ but Emma didn't hold it against him. He revealed himself to be a mutant – like her – and informed her that he had put together his own Inner Circle. He wanted her to be a part of it.

What he envisioned for their social club was success where the - now infamous - Brotherhood had failed. Those boys were of poor stock. They didn't have breeding, or money, or ambition beyond committing felonies in Bayville. They didn't have direction. And they certainly didn't have the wherewithal to manipulate the media in the way that Sebastian could. He was not interested in making headlines for destruction of property. No, he intended to change the world, beginning with New York. Unlike previous iterations of the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw had the innovative perspective of a young man with endless resources. He believed that influence and power to shape the future should be in the hands of mutants like them, not their parents or mentors. _They_ should be the ones to decide what their world would look like. Emma agreed.

Of course, when she signed on she did not expect to be doing _this_.

She was not Sebastian Shaw's errand girl – and yet, here she was, keeping an eye on Scott Summers and Jean Grey for reasons that had not been fully explained to her. Shaw had made it very clear to her what would happen if he caught her reading his mind... but she disliked his secretive demeanor. Shouldn't the queen have more of a say in how she spent her evenings? Her time was precious.

 _Doesn't he trust me?_ Emma could hear the frustration in this thought as clear as a bell. Jean was talking to Scott about her plans to return to school and finish her degree - and meanwhile, his mind was racing. He wished the Professor would have confided in him about his visions. He was resentful. He was worried. He wanted to protect Jean and felt that he couldn't do so if he didn't know what the 'worst case scenario' could be. And so on, and so forth. _Admirable multi-tasking in a man,_ Emma thought somewhat condescendingly. He could engage Jean easily in her discussion about university requirements while simultaneously struggling with questioning a great mentor he admired and respected.

"This is the best restaurant in town." Emma was doing some multi-tasking of her own, eavesdropping on their dinner across the room while managing her own date. Paul was trying - and failing - to keep her attention. He offered that brilliant statement as a segue to... what, exactly?

"Is it?"

"Yeah. It was just built."

"How fascinating." Emma leaned forward slightly, a shift in position that accentuated the low neckline of her white gown. Paul stared. Poor boy. He really was _so_ out of his league. "Paul," she said his name - twice - before he raised his gaze to meet cool blue eyes, "Do you know that couple?" She gestured with one perfectly manicured hand in the direction of Jean and Scott.

She would have preferred Duncan Matthews - Jean's old flame - to fulfill this role but sadly he was still in prison for some... debacle with explosives last year. So Emma took the next best thing: the former friend of Scott Summers. She did not take on charity cases, after all. No, she had chosen this boy for a reason. He was her way in, without requiring her to compromise herself by showing up on the steps of the Xavier Institute like one of their little lost lambs. Emma Frost was _not_ a wayward social outcast in need of guidance. She had no desire to give up her life - as it was - so she had to find another way to acquaint herself with the X-Men. This was what Sebastian asked of her.

Paul's gaze refocused in the direction Emma subtly indicated, and for a few seconds his mouth couldn't catch up with his thoughts. Finally, he managed with a furrowed brow, "That's Scott. I went to school with him."

"Scott who?" she feigned ignorance, "He seems so familiar to me for some reason."

"Scott Summers," Paul said grimly, and Emma read in his thoughts shame. He had once been best friends with Scott, and he felt betrayed by what he'd seen on the news. He could not believe that he had befriended a mutant for so long without knowing what he really was. He was angry, too.

"Really?" Emma gasped in surprise.

"Yeah." Paul didn't want to talk about it, but Emma gently brushed the heel of her Manolo Blahniks against his calf. She seemed to be hanging on his every word, so he added belatedly, swallowing, "And that's Jean Grey."

"The redhead?"

"Yeah."

"She's very pretty, don't you think?"

Paul thought she was 'smoking hot', but all he did was scoff outwardly, "She's a freak. They both are- _o_ _w._ "

Emma dug the heel of her shoe into the meat of his leg, and smiled apologetically in response. She disliked the 'f' word. "Will you introduce me, darling?"

Paul resisted. "They're _mutants_." He said it like a curse, as if they had some sort of contagious disease. _You should be so lucky, you imbecile._

Despite her growing impatience in the face of this boy's profound idiocy, Emma retained her flirtatious composure. "They're famous, Paul, and you know them. I would like to meet them," she insisted, curiosity seemingly getting the best of her. She gave him a look of faux reproach, "You aren't afraid, are you?"

"Of course not," he insisted, emboldened by the prospect of impressing Emma, "I'll take you over there right now."

"Would you?" she repeated in her very best 'oh, what a treat!' voice. He stood up and she waited until he remembered to pull out her chair. Then she took his arm and the two of them crossed the dining room together.

Scott noticed his former friend before her date managed to stutter two words together. "Paul?" There was pain in his voice, and in the memory of a friendship lost. From what she gleaned from Scott's mind, Paul had distanced himself from known association with a mutant - he was hardly the only person to do so, but it hurt more because this rejection came from someone Scott thought of as a friend. Emma found herself feeling uncharacteristically sympathetic towards the handsome X-Man. _He does wear those glasses well, doesn't he?_ It made her look much less favorably on her date as well. She still hadn't decided what she going to do with him once this was all over.

"Summers," Paul replied stiffly, barely acknowledging Jean at all.

"How... how've you been?" Scott asked with a forced smile.

"Good."

The silence stretched between the two couples until it was _nearly_ uncomfortable.

"Hello, Scott," Emma said, warmth in her voice and her gaze. She was intimate enough with his first name to surprise Jean. "My name is Emma." She offered him her hand and after a moment of uncertainty, he shook it. "I feel as though we know each other already, seeing as you went to school with Paul."

"Oh, uh, really?" He was confused by the coldness of his friend juxtaposed against Emma's friendly introduction.

"Yes." She gave Scott her most charming smile, all white teeth and sparkling eyes. Then she turned to the redhead, still smiling but with less warmth. "And you must be Jean. It's a pleasure."

"Emma, is it?" Jean smiled back, somewhat unsure but still amicable, "Nice to meet you." The words seemed genuine. Emma didn't pry. She didn't want to give herself away so soon... although she _was_ curious. Jean was a telepath like herself. What did she have that made her so special? She wouldn't even read her own boyfriend's mind. She was the one Sebastian was interested in, but Emma could think of at least three X-Men who were far more intriguing than the redhead.

But she supposed it was nice to put an introduction with the face.

"Well," Emma touched Paul's arm gently, "We don't want to disrupt your dinner," she spoke for her date and telepathically induced him to remain quiet. He had done his part. "I only wanted to say hello." She looked at Scott as she spoke. "I hope we see each other again very soon." With a parting smile to both X-Men, Emma returned to her dinner table with her date. Sitting across from him - and utterly ignoring his presence - Emma took out her cell phone and redialed a blocked number.

"It's me," she said in a low voice, rearranging her silverware on the table as she spoke until they were perfectly spaced apart, "She returned today with Charles Xavier. There will no more trips. He will continue treating her at the Xavier Institute in Bayville." This was the information she had taken from Scott's mind, and which she now passed on to Sebastian. "If there's nothing else?" Her tone suggested there better not be 'something else' because she was quite fed up with this charade, and then he told her that she looked beautiful in Louis Vuitton. She smiled slowly, but knew better than to look around the restaurant for him. He wouldn't be here in person. "Flattery will get you everywhere," Emma replied smoothly, and Sebastian wished her good night. Emma slid her phone back into her clutch.

"Who was that?"

She sighed. She'd almost forgotten about Paul. "No one you need concern yourself with, dear," she replied, "Shall we get the check?" She was eager to be rid of him now. He had served his purpose, so the next time she 'bumped' into the X-Men she wouldn't need an introduction. Or even a _re_ -introduction. Emma was quite confident. No matter how brief the exchange, she _always_ left an impression.


	10. Chapter 10: Kitty

'I gotta go,' he said.

Kitty didn't think she'd been too harsh – no more than he deserved, okay? She couldn't help it. Seeing his face just made her so mad because it reminded her of how much she'd cried after they broke up. She thought she would never see him again, and knowing now that he had been in New York the whole time but he didn't want to see her? That hurt. Like, a lot. It was different when _she_ told _him_ to get lost because she usually only half-meant it and it was only after he'd pulled some stunt with the Brotherhood that destroyed a building or endangered people. But Kitty genuinely thought, after what happened with Apocalypse, that things were going to change. They were going to get back together, he was going to come back to the Institute, and this time Scott wouldn't be such a jerk about it. Then Lance told her it was never going to happen. And just because he flew to Mexico to help her did not mean he wanted to give their relationship another shot.

And she was standing here in front of him feeling like the world's biggest idiot in her fluffy pink jacket and green face paint, while he lied to her again and he said he had to go.

"No, you don't," Kitty argued with no small amount of accusation in her voice, because he didn't have to 'leave'. He just got here. "You're bailing," on her. _Again_. It made her so angry. "You are really good at that, Lance." It was, like, his secondary mutation.

Her passive aggressiveness ticked him off and he _finally_ made eye contact with her. "You got something to say, Kitty? Just say it."

" _Fine_ ," she would. "You lied to me about leaving New York!"

"I never said I was leaving New York-"

"Don't do that. Don't act like you didn't know what you were doing," he just wanted to break up with her and be a coward about it. "You're not that dumb."

Lance looked pissed. "Wow, thanks."

"I didn't mean- I don't think you're _dumb_ , Lance," but she did think he did a lot of dumb things. "Why didn't you just tell me the truth?" She could've handled it. She would've left him alone if he told her to. "You didn't have to join S.H.I.E.L.D. just to get away from me!"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Lance swore at her and a tremor radiated through the ground, causing a handful of gourds to roll off the cart with a succession of _thumps_. She noticed people were staring – including her friends, so he better not lose control. "Come here." He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her towards the parking lot.

 _Bamf._

Kurt appeared in front of them and Lance nearly ran into him. "Kitty, you okay?"

Lance looked so mad – for a lot of reasons, mainly that Nightcrawler jumped in his way and then ignored him like he wasn't there. "I'm _fine_ ," Kitty insisted, phasing her wrist out of Lance's grasp with an irritated, "Don't _grab_ me. You know I hate that."

He glanced between the two of them and Kitty could see him giving up, right in front of her. "Forget it," he said flatly. He wasn't about to have this conversation outnumbered by X-Geeks. "I'm outta here." He walked off and left her with Kurt.

"Lance, wait!"

"Kitty, don't." Kurt put a hand on her shoulder.

"Just let me do this, okay?" She was trying not to let her anger get the best of her – because she didn't want to take it out on Kurt. "It'll take, like, five seconds max."

"Kitty-"

"Kurt, trust me," she interrupted him impatiently, because she knew what she was doing. "Can you give us some space?"

Kurt said something in German that she didn't understand – but she probably didn't need to. She got the gist. He wasn't happy about it, but he _bamf_ ed out of sight a moment later, leaving Kitty to dispel the sulfuric smoke left behind. She knew he wouldn't be far, but he was far enough that she could stop Lance before he pulled out of that parking lot.

"Lance?" She called out his name but she didn't see him and it was hard to tell all these cars apart at night. She wouldn't have found his beat-up jeep if he didn't crank on the ignition, nearly blinding her with the headlights a few feet away. "Lance, _wait_. We're not finished yet." She tried to open the passenger's side door but it was locked. "Don't make me phase through your car."

He left her waiting outside for a full five seconds, long enough that she thought either he couldn't hear her or he was determined to be completely immature about this. He _finally_ leaned over and manually unlocked the door – just before Kitty lost her temper, too – and she got in the jeep. It smelled stale. Like old beer, and chips, and dirty clothes. She couldn't tell if that was the result of having Blob as a passenger – or if it was always this grimy and Lance just didn't notice because he was used to it.

"Talk to me." Kitty decided not to insult the jeep for the time being, especially since the heater kicked in and that was sort of nice. It was cold outside. "Lance?"

He slouched in his seat and stared at the driver's side mirror like it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen in the world. Was he just going to ignore her the whole time, because- "I didn't join S.H.I.E.L.D. to get away from you," he said in a low voice. It was quiet but not calm. He was still angry.

"Then why? You made that decision without even _talking_ to me!"

Lance turned to her, responding to her raised voice with his own, "It wasn't your decision to make!" And Kitty would have just told him not to do it, and all the reasons why it was a bad idea.

"So it doesn't matter what I think?" That was nice to know.

"I _know_ what you think." He made it sound like a bad thing, and his left hand clenched against the steering wheel. Nothing happened.

"That you could do better than S.H.I.E.L.D.? Because yeah, you could."

" _No, I can't!"_ He slammed his hand against the wheel and the horn blared into the empty parking lot. Kitty flinched in response to the sound – the way it cut through the air – and said nothing. "I can't." He repeated the words, more calmly this time. "Look, S.H.I.E.L.D. offered to wipe our records," give them full pardons, all of 'em, for all the shit they pulled in Bayville - and all they had to do was join up, "Nobody else was gonna hire me, Kitty." He was a mutant and a hood. He didn't even graduate from high school. The only thing he had going for him were his powers.

Kitty didn't know that S.H.I.E.L.D. gave the Brotherhood government pardons. She didn't know they had that authority. And it wasn't that she thought Lance should end up in jail or anything – like a jail could hold him, but that was besides the point – because a lot of the stuff he did… yeah, it was bad but he was also working for Mystique (who was much worse). And Kitty felt like the good he'd done in helping to save the world should've balanced that stuff out. She was willing to give him a clean slate.

But S.H.I.E.L.D. could actually do it. Give him a clean slate. And now he owed them. "You don't think there are strings attached to that?" Kitty bet the second he quit – if he tried to quit – they'd get him arrested for the stuff he did.

Lance shrugged. "There's always strings attached." He said it like he'd thought about it – a lot – and decided that it was worth it. Was it really, though? Was it _really_ worth it to get indebted to S.H.I.E.L.D.?

"Not at the Institute." He could have come back to the mansion. The Professor would have been totally fine with that. He knew what a good person Lance could be.

"Yeah, _right_."

"Lance, I'm serious." He said nothing. "You think there are strings attached to living at the Institute?" she demanded.

"No," he retorted, glancing at her, "I know there are."

"Like what? Like training sessions?" He didn't want to do that? Were those the strings? Kitty had no idea what he was talking about. "You don't _have_ to be an X-Man to live there. Tabby isn't."

Lance shook his head. "I'm not Boom Boom," who got along with everybody.

"There's a shocker, Lance." Wow, she totally couldn't tell.

He scowled at her. "I don't want Xavier's charity, Kitty." His annoyance made her annoyed – because that wasn't what it was. It wasn't 'charity'. "I got this under control."

" _You've_ got S.H.I.E.L.D. under control? I feel so much better now." Kitty laid the sarcasm on thick, so he knew exactly how she felt about that. She thought Lance was going to get mad again, but instead he just sighed and leaned back in the seat. He seemed tired. "You know S.H.I.E.L.D. is just using you," she insisted, and while her voice softened she just couldn't let it go. A muscle tightened in Lance's jaw but he didn't say anything. "I'm worried about you."

"Don't."

"Easier said than done." Kitty didn't mean to say that out loud. She was immediately embarrassed and felt herself blush before Lance shifted in his seat to look at her.

"I'm never gonna be what you think I am, Kitty," he said quietly, "That's why I didn't tell you." Because he was sick of disappointing her and it was too hard to be with her knowing that he'd just keep doing the same shit 'cause he-

"What does that even _mean_?"

"I'm not a hero," he said flatly. She got it in her head that he was, so he kept letting her down. He was tired of it.

She stared at him. "What do you call Mexico?"

"I didn't-"

"No, what do you _call_ it, Lance? You came!" Sure, when she initially went to the Brotherhood for help – he told her, 'no', he didn't care what Apocalypse did or to who. But in the end, he did show up. "You did the right thing."

"I came for _you_."

"It's the same thing!"

"No, it's not, Kitty."

"What about the train?" Last year Wanda had lost control of her powers in the subway and derailed a train. "You helped people get away – regular people, not mutants. That was real." The Brotherhood started staging accidents after that so they could pretend to be 'heroes', and that wasn't so great but Lance's instinct was still… he still did some good.

"Kitty…"

"No, Lance, you like to _think_ you're not good enough-"

" _You_ said I wasn't!"

"I was angry!" That was their big blow-up before this last one. Kitty had been furious - because Lance stupidly let Principal Kelly manipulate him into trying to get mutants banned from school.

"You were _right_."

Kitty was exasperated, and she could've kicked herself for what she said in the heat of the moment – because she couldn't believe he was still upset over that. She did call him a hood – in front of everybody – because that's how he was _acting_. And when she confronted him outside of BHS, she wanted to hurt him for what he did. But that was, like, two years ago…

"And that's why you don't want to be with me?" Kitty just wanted to be sure she understood what was going on. And a part of her knew that she was being dumb ( _so_ dumb) because everyone had told her she was better off without him. They were always 'off-and-on' and mostly off, and he was always putting the people she loved in danger because of what his stupid friends convinced him to do, and it was frustrating to her because she knew that _he_ knew what he was doing was wrong. And it wasn't enough to stop him. What do you even do with someone like that? You _don't_ date them. That was a bad idea.

"It's not…" Lance stopped. He made a sound, like a cross between a groan and a growl that made her stomach twist, and raked his fingers through his hair. It didn't do any good. It fell right back into his face again. "This is the right call," he said instead.

"Why are you the only one who gets to decide that?" Why did he get to make the call about what was 'right' or 'wrong'? Why didn't she get to have a say? Her throat felt tight but she didn't want to cry because one, she never cried in front of Lance and two, she didn't want her face paint to run.

Lance looked at her and he wished he hadn't. He felt bad. "Damnit, Kitty."

" _What?_ "

He turned to her completely – or as completely as he could, in the cab of the jeep – "I'm _tryin'_ to do the right thing here."

"Really? Because it just feels like you're breaking up with me." _Again_. It was not an awesome feeling.

"I am not gonna drag you back down into _my_ shit, okay? Leave it alone."

" _Your_ shit?" He was talking about S.H.I.E.L.D., right? "I _can't_ leave it alone. If Mastermind is in town and doing something bad, we have to stop him." Because that's what the X-Men did.

"I never should've told you that," he muttered, half to himself.

"Well, you did," she retorted shortly, "So… thanks."

"What?"

"Thank you," again, "For telling me about Mastermind." She could understand why he was confused – because she was thanking him in a very aggressive way. She was still upset. It showed in her voice.

"Oh." Lance scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "You're welcome. I guess."

An uncomfortable silence stretched between them for nearly a minute, and Kitty became acutely aware of the fact that this was the closest they'd been to each other in a long time. She looked at him and bit the inside of her bottom lip anxiously. She watched him follow that movement with her eyes. He was staring at her mouth. It made her blush.

She had to do something to distract herself. "You need to shave," she told him lightly, forcing the quaver out of her voice. "What is that scruff?" Kitty reached over and brushed her fingers against his chin. It was meant to be a playful gesture. It would've been, if Lance didn't grab her wrist. He moved a lot faster than you'd think he could, by looking at him. He held her wrist but not hard, he didn't squeeze, so she didn't phase out of his grasp.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

He didn't release her wrist and, in fact, he leaned over to slide his other hand behind her head. He crushed her ponytail between his fingers. "Something stupid." Kitty didn't think he meant to say that out loud.

"You think kissing me is stupid?" That's what she thought he was doing. That's what she wanted him to do. It was why she let him pull her forward, bracing one hand on the stick shift.

"I think it's a bad idea."

"It's _definitely_ a bad idea," she agreed, but she didn't pull away.


	11. Chapter 11: Pietro

**A/N:** Thank you to my amazing reviewers sifuXANA (I'm especially glad to make Lancitty compelling for someone who doesn't ship them as much!), Guest, and RaZzen! And thanks to everyone who reads and/or favorites. You're all amazing :)

* * *

Pietro made a deal with Fury.

S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't get him unless they took Wanda, too. Magneto made a speech after they rescued him in Mexico, about making amends and dedicating himself to the new generation of mutants, and Pietro had played every word over and over and over in his mind. He saw right through it. Wanda didn't. It wasn't her fault. But he manipulated her into signing on with S.H.I.E.L.D. – it was easy, everything came easy to him - to keep her away from Magneto and Xavier's circus of X-idiots.

Pietro combed through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance and classified data, and then he tracked Wyngarde. By the time they figured out he stole a senior agent's ID to gain access to Level 7 clearance, he'd already have what he was looking for. Nobody _caught_ Pietro Maximoff. They could take a lifetime to _catch up_ to him and they still wouldn't come close.

He casually mentioned Boom Boom's text because Lance had gotten worked up over a two-minute phone call with the X-Cat… and he knew that'd get him out of the house. Their little melodrama was annoying – predictable, repetitive, cliche, moronic, take your pick - but Pietro turned it to his advantage.

 _"Get out!"_ He glanced up at the sound of Wanda's voice, the resultant crash, and Toad's high-pitched shriek. He grabbed his jacket and left.

* * *

Shaw Industries.

Pietro picked the lock on Wyngarde's apartment - a month-to-month rental in Brooklyn - but he didn't find anything useful at first. He took pictures, tore the room apart, then put it back together once he found the receipt. That took him to a restaurant in Manhattan where he used a picture of Wyngarde and hit on the hostess who looked up last night's reservations and let Pietro take a look. Wyngarde's name wasn't on the list, but Shaw's was. He narrowed down the possibilities based on the time stamp on the receipt, party number, then searched the names.

Got a name, looked it up. Cross-referenced it with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database: 'restricted'.

Pietro went to the source: access control security (fob-based) system, bioscrypt finger scanner and facial recognition, cameras, motion sensors, armed guards on rotation. It took him less than a minute to case the building and find the security office. Six men, five hundred monitors on two walls, and it was half of what Shaw needed to secure this building. Pietro filed away that discrepancy for later.

"Sooo which one of you is Head of Security?"

He leaned against the wall and watched them react. The one on the end nearly fell out of his chair. Pietro rolled his eyes and remarked, "Nice to see Shaw's getting what he paid for: twitchy rent-a-cop with a gun," because that never goes wrong. People were idiots.

"What are you doing in here?"

"Looking. For. The. Head. Of. Security." Pietro enunciated clearly. "Though I can see now it's no one in this room. Want to give me a name? A number? He's the only person next to Shaw who can bypass the biometrics upstairs, am I right?"

Two of the guards exchanged looks. A third blurted out, "You need to leave. This is a restricted-"

"-area? You don't say." Pietro didn't like to be cornered so when they started to advance on him, he bolted across the room and ended up by the trash can. He snatched an unfinished bag of Bugles off the table and tossed three back.

"Holy shit, he's a mutant."

"Nothing gets past you, does it..." Pietro crossed the room and took a look at his nametag, then stepped out of reach. "...Danvers?" His attention snapped to one of the guards who'd gotten antsy at the mention of 'mutant'. He had his hand on his gun. Pietro raised a brow, unconcerned, and moved on. "Calling your boss?" The one in the middle touched her ear subtly, readjusting her com. She froze when Pietro addressed her. "Anyday now," he prompted her impatiently.

Pietro finished off the Bugles and balled up the plastic bag. He threw it in the trash.

She finally got the words out. "Sir, we have a situation." Pietro scanned the security cameras until he saw who he was looking for: on the sixth floor, heading towards the north elevator.

That's what he needed. Pietro knocked out the security guards. One with his own gun, three into the wall, two into the table. He intercepted Head of Security on his way down, stole his keys and card, and used him to get into the penthouse. He searched every room until he found the office, and let himself in. Bronze marble floors, a single white accent wall juxtaposed against brown, black lacquer tables, leather chairs, arched windows heavily curtained, antique decanter, and frames with no pictures in them.

Pietro went straight for the computer. It was password-protected.

He worked through that with one hand, and went through the desk with the other: drawers, planner, landline voicemail. He didn't stop when he heard a door slam but he raised his eyes briefly from the screen.

 _"One-eight-one-four, donato."_

The voice rang out clearly, with an edge of amusement. He glanced back to the computer, closed out of what he was doing, and typed in the four digit pin and password. He sat down in the office chair as the workstation loaded.

Pietro ran a full search of the hard drive, and skimmed the internet history.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Sebastian Shaw - unflanked by his security team, but still in the building which Pietro didn't anticipate - stepped into his own study dressed in a suit, dark hair styled carefully, expression bemused.

Pietro glanced up and only because he had to wait on the computer. "Mastermind."

His close-lipped smile widened. "Is that what this is about? S.H.I.E.L.D. could do better than harass the employees of my favorite restaurant." Nothing. The computer was clean. "Unless, of course, this is a personal matter."

Shaw's cell phone rang. Pietro rounded the table and snatched the phone out of his hand as he unlocked it - and before he could check the messages. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Shaw clenched his fist briefly. It was reactive, frustrated, too fast for most people to catch.

"I spared no expense on security measures for this building."

"How's that working out for you?" Pietro drawled, as he scrolled through Shaw's messages.

"Not very well," Shaw replied, adjusting his cufflinks, "It seems I'll have to terminate my night staff."

"Might want to go for a full refund," he said, "I didn't even break a sweat."

"Well, you aren't most people, Quicksilver."

Pietro wasn't surprised Shaw knew who he was. Anybody with a TV and half a braincell would recognize him. "Glad to see we're on the same page," he was born on that page, it took seventeen years for the rest of the world to get there.

"Why do you want to know about Mastermind?"

Pietro didn't answer. "Tell me about 'Hellfire'." There was an encrypted file with that name. Shaw's jaw clenched in response and he smirked. "Save me the time, Shaw, or I'll hand this over to S.H.I.E.L.D." He held up the phone between two fingers.

Shaw took a step closer to him but Pietro didn't move. He knew Shaw was a mutant - despite the public persona as the rich (human) CEO of Shaw Industries - but he didn't know what his powers were. Yet. He wasn't worried. There was only one mutant who'd ever gotten the best of him, and she wasn't here.

"I've never taken much of an interest in your family, Quicksilver," Magneto, yes, but not the children, "You don't want me to change my mind."

Shaw was more of an idiot than Pietro thought he was. He continued to work on the phone as he spoke, "You couldn't lay a hand on me if you tried." Pietro's gaze flicked around the room, everything he had to lose, then, "Pathetic."

Shaw had a good poker face. Better than Lance's, but that wasn't saying much. Lance was a moron. "Mastermind told me about some of his more recent work," he said smoothly, conversational yet calculating, "Quite impressive, what he did to Scarlet Witch."

Pietro stilled. "Leave my sister out of this."

"That's entirely up to you." Shaw smiled with the certainty of a man who has found the pressure point in his opponent. He held out his hand. "My phone, if you please."

* * *

Pietro was back in Bayville when he got a call from his supervisor - it went to voicemail, he didn't have time to answer that right now - and he swung by the fairgrounds to pick up Blob and Lance. He didn't feel like going back to headquarters alone.

"Let's go, Blob," Pietro cut through the middle of the pumpkin display and stood next to the table where Blob had a half dozen caramel apples and two pecan pies in front of him. "I got the call."

"Aw _man_ , I just sat down."

"For the fourth or fifth helping?" he said sarcastically, "Get it to go."

"Hey Speedy!"

"Hey Boom Boom," he gave her a nod as she sauntered over with some more food, which Blob tried to take off her hands as he got off his ass. Doing so nearly tipped the whole picnic table over. One leg splintered under the weight. "Still mooching off the X-Geeks?"

She shrugged in response, grinning, "Two words for you, slick: free cable."

"Where's Lance?" Without waiting for the reply, Pietro shot off to the parking lot and found the jeep. He saw the X-Cat inside, and yanked open the passenger's door. "Get out, Pryde."

The X-Cat recoiled from Lance with an outraged, " _Pietro!_ " She turned to glare at him, red in the face.

"Looks like I got here just in time." The X-Cat and her puritanical sensibilities.

"Shove off, man!" There was Lance, bringing up the rear with the reaction time of a slug.

"Give it a rest," he retorted in a bored monotone, "I just saved us all from a rerun of this trainwreck," interrupting it before they got started back up again, "Out of the car, Pryde," he repeated, since she was too slow to get that the first time around, "We've got work to do."

"What kind of work?"

Pietro glanced at the X-Cat, "Need to know. You don't." Pryde glared. He ignored her.

"Damnit, Pietro. Can't it wait?"

He looked at Lance. "No."

Pryde started to get out of the car. "Kitty, hold on-"

Lance tried to stop her. Pietro interrupted, "What happened to that girl from the bar?"

" _Pietro."_

"What girl?"

"Didn't he tell you?" Pietro's expression was all innocence with Pryde standing outside the car, glancing between the two of them. "Lance has been seeing other people. You might want to give that a shot. You know, get a life."

"What?" The X-Cat was confused.

"Pietro, what the hell!"

"Forget it," Pryde snapped in response, "This was a mistake."

"Kitty-"

"Back _off_ , Lance."

"Yeah, Lance. Back off," he repeated, amused.

" _Shut the fuck up_ , _Pietro_!" A quake reverberated through the ground and an alarm went off three cars down.

The X-Cat stormed off, and he glanced towards the fairgrounds and saw Blob's silhouette lumbering towards them. That gave him about thirty seconds to clear the air with Lance which was more than enough time.

"What the fuck's your problem?" Lance glared at him.

Pietro lingered outside the car because he didn't want to get in arm's reach. "I did you a favor." He paused. "You're welcome."

"Why'd you tell her about the girl?"

"Because it's true," Pietro leaned an arm against the passenger's side window. Three and a half months of moping over the X-Cat after he broke things off with her, and a couple weeks ago he finally got drunk enough to get laid. "Don't be an idiot."

"About _what_?"

It was generally good advice, but in this case? "Nothing's changed between you and Pryde." And Pietro only bothered to prove the point - that he'd already made, and he didn't like repeating himself - because he was waiting on Blob anyway. "What did she say about S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Lance turned his glare to the windshield. No answer.

"She won't be happy until you're back in spandex taking orders from Cyclops."

"Shut up."

Pietro was right and they both knew it. He slid into the passenger's seat and unrolled the window. "Blob, get a move on!"

"I'm coming!" He picked up the pace, but barely.

He leaned back impatiently. Once Blob got the jeep, it groaned and shifted under his weight.

"Are we getting Toad and Wanda?"

"Forget Wanda," Pietro said flatly, "Let's go."


End file.
